Norton 360 Standard Product Review

Multiple layers of protection is yours for the taking with Norton 360 Standard. The high-quality Internet security software provides its users with comprehensive malware protection for multiple devices all at the same time. Instead of buying an antivirus solution for your PC AND your Mac, AND your iPhone, all you’ve got to do is get Norton 360 Standard and all your problems will be solved.

When you purchase Norton 360 Standard, you are getting value for money through and through. The antivirus software can protect a single PC, Mac, Android or IOS device all at the same time! As a cool added bonus, Norton 360 Standard also comes with an additional 10GB of secure cloud backup for your PC.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Norton 360 Standard’s got other awesome features, too.  like a Dark Web Monitoring feature, which monitors the dark web and immediately notifies the user once they see the user’s personal information on the dark web. On top of all that Norton 360 Safecam features too, which helps keep hackers from gaining unauthorized access to a specific device.

Why Choose Norton 360 Standard?

According to the results of the real-world protection test conducted by AV-comparatives, Norton Antivirus detected and blocked about 99.3% of threats, which is a great result considering that 30 is above the industry average.

AV-Test Lab awarded the maximum 18 points to the latest version of Norton Antivirus (6 for protection, performance, and usability). It is worth noting though that historically, Norton would on average get 5.5 points for usability.

When it comes to malware protection, Norton is at the top of the antivirus game. If you try to access a website with malware in it, Norton would block the access showing a warning of danger. When trying to download an infected file, Norton would also warn you and stop the downloading process.

Once it detects a virus, Norton moves the virus to the quarantine folder to prevent it from harming the computer. Every time an infected file is stopped, Norton prevents further damage to the computer by informing the user where it thinks the threat is going to install itself on the computer.

All products have distinct advantages AND disadvantages. We’ve gone through a few of Norton’s good parts, now let’s go over some areas of improvement. Based on the results of some antivirus testing labs, sometimes the antivirus doesn’t block detected viruses. So, when you use it, you probably need to double-check to make sure that every detected threat is blocked and moved to the quarantine folder.

Another principal downsides is that it slows computers down during malware scans. The company claims they have resolved this issue, but it still persists in some devices. But we needed to see for ourselves. To check out how Norton S60 Standard affects the performance of Windows, we took an Asus notebook with Windows 10 OS and Intel Core i3-5005U processor.

Our team performed a standard OpenOffice-based benchmark test: during the process, we matched 20,000 addresses on a spreadsheet. Before antivirus installation, it took us 7 minutes to complete the task. After installation and activation of Norton, the time grew to 11 seconds. Although this level of performance impact seems to be serious, you aren’t likely to notice it.

During the full system scan, performance dropped by 30%, so Norton Antivirus is somewhere in the middle of antivirus solutions rating in terms of system impact.

As for the speed of scanning, Norton 360 Standard displays the average result: it takes over 1 hour to scan a hard drive, while a quick scan takes 3 minutes and 20 seconds. You can accelerate the process using the whitelist: add trustworthy files there, and you will limit scanning time only to the potentially dangerous files. After doing so, you can decrease the full scanning time to 20 minutes only.

Similar to other antivirus software, Norton offers three layers of protection including signature matching (the software is matched to the database of known malware packages). The protection is strengthened by heuristic analysis – it controls the behavior of software and checks the code of new programs to detect unknown malware before it affects your devices.

To top it off, Norton releases new signatures with updates several times a day – the samples from users’ machines are analyzed on the proprietary cloud servers. If anything is deemed dangerous, Norton’s team fixes vulnerabilities and sends signature updates. Norton features browser extensions for Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer. The extension checks destination headers for web packets for connection with known malicious websites.

What about a game mode? Although there is no game mode as it is, you can put the Norton Security application into Silent Mode and reduce the number of updates and user notifications when the full screen and 3D graphics are running. It’s the same when you power up your computer after long-term inactivity and do the updates later to avoid slowdown.

Together with the main Norton antivirus product you get defense against spyware, protection of the system’s Registry file to block the installation of unauthorized applications, and protection against ransomware and phishing.

Norton Interface 

The interface of the antivirus is intuitive and bright, and it contains all necessary links for simple management. When you open the program, you will see four major security options offered by Norton: Security, Backup, Performance, and Identity. If you need additional information, you need to click “More Norton.” There is a reminder that tells you when the subscription terminates and provides the link for renewal.

Superior Scanning Options

Norton Antivirus provides the following scanning options:

– Fast scanning of local files and discs

– Full scanning of a hard drive (detection of all known vulnerabilities)

– Scanning and repair of compressed files

– Rootkits and stealth items scan

– Scanning of the network during the Full scan and Custom scan. This option is turned on by default

– Heuristic Protection (detection of unknown threats). If the software detects a suspicious file, it’s categorized as infected and blocked

– Cookies scan. The software detects small files that might have been placed on the computer to track user’s activities

Norton has recently updated its product and now offers four packages to choose from. Norton Antivirus Plus is a basic package that will protect 1 PC or Mac from all types of malware and ransomware. Smart firewall, password manager and anti-phishing tools are also included in the package. Besides, the package comes with 2GB of safe cloud storage.

The Norton 360 Standard package is the next tier for 1 device that is compatible with iOS and Android as well. Moreover, with this package, you get more cloud storage (10 GB), webcam protection, VPN tool, and Dark Web Monitoring to protect your data.

Norton 360 Standard’s has a particularly aggressive set of firewall rules which activate as soon as installation is complete, which can lock down your PC’s network connections, depending on how you have it configured. If you’re connected to a public network, protocols such as RDP, file sharing and printer sharing will be disabled by default.

Norton’s firewall controls are clear and highly granular, with a few smart options to help protect against man-in-the-middle attacks and the ability to set per-interface trust levels. It can be disabled if you prefer working with the more familiar Windows Defender firewall.

While Norton’s core real-time system security features are enabled by default, including real-time browser protection, you’ll have to set up some features manually, such as the Safe Web browser plugin that warns against potentially malicious search results and phishing sites, and Norton’s own unnecessarily intrusive Safe Search and default home page options – we suggest avoiding the latter two.

Norton 360 Standard comes with plenty of extra security features, including a subscription to Norton Secure VPN, parental controls, system clean-up and optimisation tools, a password manager, 50GB of cloud storage for your backups and a webcam protection feature that alerts you when anything unexpected attempts to enable your camera. There’s a silent mode, too, so you don’t have to be bothered by alert pop-ups, but you can only enable it for a maximum of one day at a time.

There’s no integrated rescue disk creator, but a bootable recovery tool is available to download for free in case a catastrophic malware attack prevents you from getting into Windows.

When uninstalling the software, you’ll have to remember to uncheck the box offering layered protection, which will continue to periodically scan your computer for malware unless you opt out.