Is my norton security 2015 not set up right? Its letting malware through.

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JollyGood

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Jan 7, 2015
25
Hi guys,

Well the thing is i just recently got Norton security 2015 with backup and all in all it seems like a pretty good piece software however, why is it not blocking any malicious url's(keeping in mind that web filtering is enabled)? I decided to test norton out by putting the security of my entire computer in its hands and visited a few infected websites that i found online and to my surprise norton didn't block any of em. As a matter of fact the only time norton kicked into action was when the malware actually got onto my PC and was being analyzed by hitman pro. Did i just set it up wrong or is there something seriously wrong with norton 2015? Because from the poll that i had set up earlier 7 out of 10 people recommended norton security 2015 over Bitdefender 2015. Now surely norton has to be some good for so many people to select norton over Bitdefender. Would really appreciate some help on this topic because i am really concerned about the security of my PC now :(
Surely i may have done something worng :(
(because all i remember doing was allowing Norton to automatically remove low risk files and allowing sonar to automatically remove infected files)
 
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ElectricSheep

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Aug 31, 2014
655
OUCH...! I'm no expert, but as far as I'm aware Norton is an anti-virus not an anti-malware.
Besides, no AV or AM program/suite is bulletproof - they all have their weaknesses. I would suggest you open a thread on http://malwaretips.com/forums/malware-removal-assistance.10/ and get TwinHeaded Eagle's expert assistance ASAP.
In future, I would leave malware testing to the experts if I was you. It really is for the people who actually know what they are doing.
 

frogboy

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Also to add if you do not have them add Web of Trust and some adblock software such as Adguard or addblock plus. ;) I have norton for 5 years and no infections so far and it's setup is quite good out of the box. :)
 

darko999

Level 17
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Oct 2, 2014
805
Norton protection is basically a weak cloud + let's block unknown files because we want that, and we are lazy. They have an average detection rate, "not the worse, not good". The sonar module works sometimes, as sometimes means almost never. There are better options for paid protection, however. If you are smart at surfing the web and downloading files, Norton should be enough for you; overall.
 

Rahadian Putra

Level 9
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Jan 28, 2014
444
Your web browser is your first line of defense, like @frogboy said, probably adding adblocker and another site advisor is necessary (if you havent') regarding detection, no it's not weak, it's just average, not too low not too high with low false positive, I'm also using norton and never had any single infection, the sonar module rely on the cloud, keep in mind when your internet speed is low/drop sonar didn't function properly and might just skip any files/url. The reason why people choosing norton over bitdefender probably due to it's stability and light, bitdefender is solid and has better detection, but alas it might slow down your computer a little bit. But again detection rate is not the most important when choosing a security product, we must see it in many aspects such as performance, stability, bugs or even it's simplicity.

I agree with @ElectricSheep probably in the future leaves malware testing to the expert.
 
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kiric96

Level 19
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Jul 10, 2014
917
when i tested norton long time ago it was a great product for me... but when i started to "test" the product with undected malware "it is much easier to find undected malware by norton than any other AV, even if you submit the file they will no add detection or take ages to do it" besides i had a bad experience with customer service.. for me bitdefender is better i like when you dont have to tweak the settings... really norton can be bulled proof but you have to set up... may be if you share us your config we may help you. be advised that "out of the box" setting is BAD idea... also norton heavily really on internet.. so please keep in mind that...
 

Cats-4_Owners-2

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Hi JollyGood, you've received a good amount of sensible advice already. It is particularly sensible to appreciate how multi-faceted safe browsing can be especially when feeling comfortably invincible.:p Even a good Anti-virus has limitations, and just as the very best coat can keep you very warm, however well insulated it may be, it would never be able to protect you in the street from a fast moving vehicle.:confused:
Next time you come near a malicious site, don't cross into it. If you must, use Sandboxie.
for the kind of protection you'd get wearing a warm coat with all the cars stopped while you cross using the crosswalk!:D
 
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jamescv7

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Mar 15, 2011
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Actually Norton components to be honest isn't great from their signatures due to the fact it focuses more on cloud therefore, their Download Insight feature can give an accurate detection at all; Sonar (Behavior Blocker) is good but don't expect to much from its performance as can slip from viruses/malware.

Auto-Protect can give protection as long if you encountered common threats, so as much as possible stay away from Zero Day malware/viruses to avoid any bypass.

:)
 

frogboy

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Actually Norton components to be honest isn't great from their signatures due to the fact it focuses more on cloud therefore, their Download Insight feature can give an accurate detection at all; Sonar (Behavior Blocker) is good but don't expect to much from its performance as can slip from viruses/malware.

Auto-Protect can give protection as long if you encountered common threats, so as much as possible stay away from Zero Day malware/viruses to avoid any bypass.

:)
Very well put i would like to say even being a Norton user. :eek::D
 

JollyGood

Level 1
Thread author
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Jan 7, 2015
25
Hi guys,

Thanks for all of your advice. Really appreciate it.Well its not really me that I'm worried about it's the rest of my family. I am a pretty advanced PC user and managed to remove all traces of the malware on my PC within minutes (by running emsisoft emergency toolkit, malwarebytes anti-malware and hitman pro). The thing is my family isn't really as cautious as me when it comes to browsing the web. My dad for instance just downloads software that comes loaded with adware or just sign's into any website with he believes might be real/clean, my mom and my sister watch TV shows over the internet regardless of where they may come from. Also, The thing is i am an engineering student and can't go around all day checking up on what their doing, how their PC's are performing and running scans on their PC's every night. I do agree that Norton 2015 is a pretty clean and stable product (i especially like their new security suite since it lets me protect all of the devices in my home with a single license) however they really have to work on their web filtering service. I faced this problem in 2012 when i first got Norton and now when i decided that it may well be a cheaper and a better alternative to Bitdefender multi-device security. And ever since, this has been the only thing that i have ever complained about however it seems like they never seem to bother trying to fix their web protection. Regardless i did see a few recommendations for WOT and ADblock plus which i will be using to replace the Norton toolbar. Are there any other security measures that i could put in place to protect them over the internet(i would like to use sandboxie however i'm kind of on a tight budget and can't really afford it at the moment)? Would really appreciate the input. And honestly though thanks guys you've been really helpful in my time of need (a lot better than Norton support who keep telling me that no antivirus product is perfect and that i need to change my browsing habits to suit the antivirus software :( )
 
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Rahadian Putra

Level 9
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Jan 28, 2014
444
Actually Norton components to be honest isn't great from their signatures due to the fact it focuses more on cloud therefore, their Download Insight feature can give an accurate detection at all; Sonar (Behavior Blocker) is good but don't expect to much from its performance as can slip from viruses/malware.

Auto-Protect can give protection as long if you encountered common threats, so as much as possible stay away from Zero Day malware/viruses to avoid any bypass.

:)
Hi JollyGood, you've received a good amount of sensible advice already. It is particularly sensible to appreciate how multi-faceted safe browsing can be especially when feeling comfortably invincible.:p Even a good Anti-virus has limitations, and just as the very best coat can keep you very warm, however well insulated it may be, it would never be able to protect you in the street from a fast moving vehicle.:confused:
Next time you come near a malicious site, don't cross into it. If you must, use Sandboxie.
for the kind of protection you'd get wearing a warm coat with all the cars stopped while you cross using the crosswalk!:D

Can't say any better, both of you guys and your speaking ability :D speechless :D

Hi guys,
i did see a few recommendations for WOT and ADblock plus which i will be using to replace the Norton toolbar. Are there any other security measures that i could put in place to protect them over the internet(i would like to use sandboxie however i'm kind of on a tight budget and can't really afford it at the moment)? Would really appreciate the input. And honestly though thanks guys you've been really helpful in my time of need (a lot better than Norton support who keep telling me that no antivirus product is perfect and that i need to change my browsing habits to suit the antivirus software :( )

Well, you can use WOT or McAfee site advisor and both are free, but keep in mind while wot based on community vote, mc afee and norton security toolbar based from the company it self, I'm using norton toolbar my self and never had an infection, but yes probably due my machine is not being shared, pretty much agree, it's really hard to fully control your family activity, and oh did I mention sandboxie is also free? the free version has limited function, you need to wait for 5 seconds before you can use it, but otherwise it's pretty much same with the full version.

My suggestion : I'd suggest to you create a limited account on your windows, and make sure your family use this one, this way they cannot make any permanent change to your real account, and if this limited account got compromised, you still have the other one which is the most important, and last...I'd suggest you to educate your family, I know how it sounds, but trust me..I've seen my friends using the so called "100% safe security product" and yet they still got infection, on the other hand..my friend didn't running even a single AV and he never had infection, yes he had MBAM and HMP, and every week he scan his PC and never found any serious infection (except some tracking cookies). This make me take a conclusion, what ever you security products, they cannot 100% protect you if you are a reckless user. Internet is a dangerous place, better they (your family) know about this than sorry :confused:
 

ImtheBest

Level 2
Verified
Oct 6, 2013
256
I would dich Norton and go with Emerisoft I'm loving the new 9.0 Only thing i wish they had was Internet web safe site thing. U could also go with Webroot they are good u can get it cheap on Amazon for $25 for 1 year for all three devices that's good too. I have always been anti Norton guy wasn't my fav. also u can get Notron on Amazon too cheap i got it befor the 360 one and its the new one its great to get thing from amazon i love that place :)

This is just my opinon hope it helps a little bit
 

ElectricSheep

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Aug 31, 2014
655
My suggestion : I'd suggest to you create a limited account on your windows, and make sure your family use this one, this way they cannot make any permanent change to your real account, and if this limited account got compromised, you still have the other one which is the most important, and last...I'd suggest you to educate your family, I know how it sounds, but trust me..I've seen my friends using the so called "100% safe security product" and yet they still got infection, on the other hand..my friend didn't running even a single AV and he never had infection, yes he had MBAM and HMP, and every week he scan his PC and never found any serious infection (except some tracking cookies). This make me take a conclusion, what ever you security products, they cannot 100% protect you if you are a reckless user. Internet is a dangerous place, better they (your family) know about this than sorry :confused:

I have to agree with this. If you restrict them to a limited user account, then if anything does get onto your system, it doesn't have administrator privileges.
Once something malicious hooks into administrator rights, you've just given it the key to your computer. Not what you want... Limited accounts aren't THAT limited - you can do everything except download or authorise changes.
Not worth the headache.
 

Nightwalker

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May 26, 2014
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This thread is so full of misinformation that isnt funny:

1- Almost ALL antivirus software nowdays are antimalware, viruses are a thing of the past (PUPs, Ransonware, APTs are the real thing now).

2- People really doesnt know how cloud protection is necessary and Norton has the best infrastructure outhere.
Symantec (maybe Trend Micro and Kaspersky too with Bit9) can get away using agressive reputation protection because of their massive whitelist database.

3- Signature protection is something overrated, a old technology that simple doesn't cut anymore. Many antivirus have 99 % "protection" in tests and still people are infected using up to date software.

4- Norton is the best against Zero day malware, I challenge anyone here to send a link (Inbox) to a real threat that Norton doesn't detect either with Download Insight or SONAR.

5- Norton has one of the best drive by download, phishing and exploit protection, bar none.


Signature dependent antivirus cant keep with massive malware production, simple as that.


With Norton 2015, I would just use Open DNS + Ublock + Backup and consider it done.
 

FleischmannTV

Level 7
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Jun 12, 2014
314
@Nightwalker

I thank you very much for your balancing perspective. I am somewhat reluctant to post in these kind of threads because in many cases it is just a bunch of people bashing a product they don't know how it works and I guess the majority haven't used it in years, if at all. There is almost no possibility for a productive and informative discussion.

Instead of switching to another product, I would recommend tuning SONAR and HEURISTICS to aggressive and LOW RISK to notify or remove. I run with these settings all the time and haven't encountered a problem yet.

Aside from that, in my experience Norton 2015 is definitely the lightest of the products with real capabilites out there, even lighter than ESET. It's true the file signatures are not good but that is only one part of the products arsenal.
 
D

Deleted member 21043

Hi,

Norton most likely just missed the URLs. As in, they don't detect it - no detection. If it blocked the sample/samples from the URL's then there shouldn't be a issue (unless you ran the sample, and it missed it..). Some Antivirus software doesn't even include "web blocking", but the real-time still blocks the samples downloaded.

Norton may have missed the URL, however once the file was downloaded, it detected it through a "generic detection"/"heuristics analysis".

Many people use Norton, or Bitdefender, and stay protected. Many people use either one of those protection suites, and still become infected. No Antivirus or Antimalware product is able to detect every threat - right now, at least, this is the case. You'd be surprised how much malware gets through them on a daily basis; same is for any product.

Many antivirus have 99 % "protection" in tests and still people are infected using up to date software.
Marketing. It's a shame it's so misleading. They should remove the whole "%" thing. Sometimes Antivirus/Antimalware products are good at detecting, the other times they may have a bad day with detections. It changes, like a roller coaster.

Signature dependent antivirus cant keep with massive malware production, simple as that.
I agree that signature-based detections are not as good (alone), however signatures are still used and work (MD5, SHA1, SHA256). I am not saying it's a good idea to just "have this", but it's still worth including. Just, there are better things which would work with it in the product. Byte detection is also good to be included. - an example is:

What if the user doesn't want things like heuristic analysis included? Then the protection would be based off the detections. So, having signatures is a good idea (e.g. SHA256) as it provides "a level" of protection when heuristics is disabled. Same, for if they didn't want other things available, e.g: code emultation/sandboxing, file reputation/cloud detection.

Normal signatures (MD5, SHA1, SHA256) (Let's use SHA256 for the example as it's more secure) >> Byte signatures >> Heuristic analysis >> Any other checks to help detect malware like file reputation, code emulation/virtualisation - better bundle of features to protect the user. Done in that order would work, I suppose.

Norton has become a lot better over the years; however so have other products.
Cheers. ;)
 
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ElectricSheep

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Aug 31, 2014
655
I'm a Norton user myself, and as @kram7750 said no AV or AM is bulletproof, I've had a few cases of PUPs and Adware myself.:eek:

Thing is, there are hundreds of thousands, probably millions of malicious files floating around out there and it would be a massive (probably impossible) job for a vendor to find and catalogue every single example out there, especially when you consider new ones are being written and released into the wild every day.
What one AV catches, another misses and the story goes on....

As people here on MT are always repeating "Sensible surfing and common sense go a long way in preventing anything getting on your system". Well, something along those lines... :p

One problem that appears to be on the increase is the increasingly sneaky ways that crapware gets bundled with legitimate software during the installation procedure. :mad: I've taken to using unchecky myself, and it's saved me on a couple of occasions as the wording or set-up of the installation process appears to be designed to catch people out. Here is a guide on the sneaky tactics that are used: http://www.howtogeek.com/168691/how...junk-programs-when-downloading-free-software/

One way to learn fast is the getting infected route, but that's not recommended! :D
 
S

starchild76

in my opinion , norton is way overpriced. its weak in protecting its users. the only good thing is that it does not slow down your system. there are free alternatives out there , that do a way better job : avast , AVG , avira , panda cloud , baidu combined with a good firewall : zonealarm , comodo , online armor. you can add open dns and k9 webfilter to your browser and you will be proteted for the staggering price of zero dollars ;)
 
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