SAN JOSE – Symantec Corp. has announced the availability of Norton 360 version 2.0 with new features that include browser protection, network security map and more local backup options that are designed to help home users increase the security of their PCs.

Norton 360 was launched last year as part of Symantec’s strategy of making security more holistic.

“We view security as no longer at the end point but securing the whole system, household and all their data,” said Lynn Hargrove, director of consumer solutions with Symantec Canada Corp.

She added with version 2.0, the company listened to its customers, in particular wired customers, as to what new features to include.

“One feedback that we received was that Norton 360 was great but it was hard to tweak the settings,” Hargrove said. She explained that a lot of people wanted the product to be much more in tune with their security experience.

Hargrove noted that version 2.0 will give users the ability customize it to their own needs.

Some of the new features include Symantec’s Browser Protection, which defends against drive-by downloads and other new or unknown threats that exploit vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and now Firefox.

As well, the new version has the SONAR behavioral detection technology, which is used to detect things like bots and phishing attacks.

Another new feature is the Network Security Map.

Hargrove explained that this helps users who have multiple computers set-up in a home network. With Network Security Map, they can view all nodes on the local network, remotely monitor the security status of not only Norton 360 but other Norton products and view overall system status, date of last scan and date of protection updates. In addition, this feature will alert users when they are connecting to an unsecured network.

Norton 360 version 2.0 also has Norton Identity Safe that offers secure password and form auto-fill for frequently visited websites. As well, it offers phishing protection and website authentication for Firefox and One-Click login to favorite sites.

The backup portion of Norton 360 has also been enhanced in the new version.

“The backup is more flexible and offers better usability,” said Hargrove.

This flexibility includes more options for local backup such as iPods and Blu-ray discs. As well, users can control what files to add or exclude from the backup. Also, it lets users know what has been backed-up, what is waiting to be backed-up and what is excluded from the back-up process.

The Tuneup setting of version 2.0 offers a more comprehensive report that lets people know what is the status of their Norton 360, their startup applications, installed applications, resource utilization, OS configuration, hardware configuration and system restore points all in one report. Hargrove said that this report can be printed, saved or e-mailed to others such as technicians to help with any problem solving.

Tuneup will also now clean unnecessary registry items and there is an option for automatic PC shutdown upon task completion.

Additionally, the usability of the product has been enhanced with an improved Background Scheduler and tighter integration with Windows Explorer. Norton 360 version 2.0 will not initiate tasks while in battery power mode and will throttle bandwidth for online backups to minimize impact on performance. Another enhancement, said Hargrove is instead of definition updates occurring once a day, Norton 360 will perform that task three times daily.

Norton 360 will be available in the United States next week while Canada will get it three weeks later. Hargrove said the delay in Canada is to ensure that the product has both the English and French version in one box. She added that this makes it easier for retailers selling Norton 360 as they only have to stock one product instead of a separate English and French version.

Pricing for Norton 360 in will be $79.99 US for the Standard edition, which includes 2GB of online storage. The Premier edition with 10GB of online storage will be priced at $99.99 US. The license is good for up to three PCs that have XP and Vista. Small business editions are available that support five to 10 users and offers 10GB and 25GB respectively of online storage. Pricing is $129.99 US for the five-user edition and $249.99 US for the 10-user version.

This column was written by Vanessa Ho of ConnectIT

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