Review: Norton Security Scan utilizes Symantec’s award winning antivirus protection engine which is also used in their Consumer and Business Programs. In addition to having great virus detection, the software also utilizes Norton Insight protection, which is essentially cloud antivirus. It works by Symantec retaining database of 10’s of millions of common PC programs and classifies each one as safe, neutral, or harmful based upon their behavior in a lab. Norton Security Scan then leverages this huge database to classify all programs on ones PC to quickly determine safe and unsafe program within about 5 minutes. In fact, this database is now the largest of its kind in the world and Norton programs are the most frequently updated antivirus available. In fact, the virus research lab releases definitions as frequent as every five minutes. This equates to hundreds of updates a day. In contrast, Free AVG will only provide updates of at most as once a day!

In addition, to Spyware Doctor and Immunet, Google Pack also offers the latest version of free Avast for several countries. The 2011 update includes sandbox protection. This previously was only available on the premium antivirus versions. Sandbox protection isolates a suspicious executable into a special area in computer memory. The antivirus essentially executes the virus and then heuristically studies what it does. If the virus
attempts to modify system files or is deemed destructive in nature it is quarantine and safely deleted. The sandbox area is then safely deleted and no damage is done to the system.

Immunet is also now freely available from Google. Immunet was recently acquired by Sourcefire the makers of open source antivirus called ClamWin. Now one can have commercially available programs, Avast, Norton, and Spyware Doctor, combined with open source user generated definitions, Immunet, to create an effective PC security barrier for ones PC!