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Antivirus maker Symantec has launched Norton Antivirus 2008 and Norton Internet Security 2008. Norton Internet Security comes with Norton Identity Safe which offers protection for online trading or browsing safe. Both programs will be available in English and Hindi versions for the Indian market.

Mr. Vishal Dhupar, MD Symantec India said, �Our 2008 products bring about new protection technologies to block threats before they get a foothold in the system. There is a threat around us, 86 per cent of computer attacks took place among home users and every third or fifth computer in India has been hacked. The softwares will provide a complete protection.�

Both Antivirus programs are based on Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response (SONAR) which offers added protection against malicious code and virus threats. Norton Antivirus 2008 will full scan for the application which is seeking online access. This may cause issues with performance of computer. Norton Antivirus has been reviewed by many security experts to slow down the system speed.

Compared to Norton Internet Security 2007, the 2008 version user interface responds 22% faster and completes a quick scan up to 39% faster.

Norton claims that the new version is better in comparison to nine competing security softwares. Norton Internet Security 2008 leads across five key performance areas including boot time (20% faster), memory usage (69% less), full scan (12% faster), user interface response (54% faster) and download speed (31% faster).

Symantec Antivirus also offers a better firewall with its current version. The software offers better internet worm and kernel level rootkit protection. The company claims that the current software is faster and offers better resource utilization. Support is just one click away.

Norton Internet Security 2008 offers better security while browsing. The new product offers smart firewall and phishing protection.

Some nice features of the current offerings are listed below.

Norton� Identity Safe

Now your Norton Software will keep your personal information and identity safeguarded when buying, banking or browsing online. The software offers capability to control which information is shared with Web sites, stores private information securely, and fills in passwords and Web forms automatically.

Home Network Feature

New Norton Software maps connected devices to provide a view of devices on the local network. Norton will monitor the overall security status of other computers with Norton Internet Security 2008 or Norton AntiVirus 2008 installed. Norton Internet Security 2008 will also check the status of wireless network security. The software will alert users when they connect to an unsecure wireless network.

Browser Defender

The new Norton offers protection against drive-by downloads and other new or unknown threats that exploit vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.

Norton announced the launch of both products for US markets in August this year. The release for Indian market includes Hindi Version.

The license for a single PC will cost for Rs 2,319. The product comes with free updates for one year. The bulk user license is cheaper. For three user license, the cost is Rs 3,009 and for five users, one will have to spend Rs 4,729.