For the price of a tank of gas, most people could protect their computers from viruses all year long. Yet millions don’t, and malicious software costs them collective billions of dollars.
Cupertino software maker Symantec is hoping to change that mindset with Norton 360, a software and online service launching today that combines anti-virus and other protection software, programs to keep computers running smoothly, and 2 gigabytes of hard drive backup. The new product is fully automated, so users will no longer have to deal with needless pop-ups and alerts about new security rules.
“I think that Norton 360 is a huge step up in consumer security,” said Forrester Research analyst Natalie Lambert. “However, getting customers to make the purchase will be a challenge.”
About 79 percent of North American computer owners use anti-virus software, but only about three in five people use programs that protect them from spyware, spam and other threats, according to Forrester. Norton 360 is aimed at those who have been too frustrated or confused to purchase complex security, maintenance and backup software.
The new software was originally code-named “Genesis,” because Symantec, after years of success with products like Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus, started from scratch in designing the product.
“It is a milestone for us,” said Rowan Trollope, Symantec’s vice president of consumer solutions. “It took us two years of blood, sweat and tears to build.” But that extra time spent coding and testing with 125,000 beta users put Symantec behind its competitors. Last fall, two companies introduced all-in-one Web-based software services to keep PCs healthy – Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare and rival McAfee’s Total Protection.
Yet Norton 360 features some technology the others don’t, including “behavior blocking” software that detects threats based on how the computer is acting. For example, when the machine’s memory usage fluctuates wildly, it’s likely that behavior is being caused by malicious software. This new technology allows Norton 360 to block attacks before Symantec and other security companies have even identified that they exist, or discover phishing scam sites before they’re reported.
Symantec’s from-the-ground-up design also allows the many technologies in Norton 360 to work together and to be accessed from a single window. It can also be used on up to three machines in a single household or small business, at no additional cost.
“A lot more integration makes things simpler to use, and solves more problems for people,” said Yankee Group analyst Andrew Jaquith. “Ultimately, though, the customers aren’t really going to care about whether the product is integrated or how much development time it took. All they really care about is whether the product does what it’s supposed to.”
Symantec already produces three of the top 10 retail software products – AntiVirus, Internet Security and SystemWorks maintenance software, according to research firm The NPD Group. With OneCare, Microsoft is trying to use its operating system dominance to edge into the lucrative consumer security market, and its $49.99 retail price is $30 lower than Norton 360.
“Symantec will have to prove to customers that Norton 360 is worth its salt – which it is,” said Forrester’s Lambert.
And successful sales of Norton 360 may provide a financial boost to a company that has struggled lately. For two straight quarters, Symantec has failed to meet financial analysts’ earnings estimates, and last month it announced a $200 million cost-cutting plan that includes laying off 5 percent of employees.
“For Symantec, Norton 360 represents the culmination of a lot of hard work, and the beginning of a next generation consumer product for them,” said Yankee analyst Jaquith. “I, for one, am very interested to see how this does.”
Contact Ryan Blitstein at rblitstein@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5715.