While I have been a long-time user of Norton Internet Security I am certainly not a fan or advocate. Just too lazy to change brands I guess.

Norton employs this pro-active tool it calls SONAR. It uses heuristics to identify emerging threats based on the behaviour of applications and claims to identify threats quicker than traditional signature-based threat detection techniques. Unfortunately the algorithms it uses are far from perfect and at times it flags genuine programs as "high certainty threats" and deletes them without warning.

I first experienced this behaviour a couple of years ago when downloading a several hundred megabyte upgrade from a highly reputable software developer in the UK. Twice I waited patiently for a slow download only to have Norton delete a perfectly safe file before I had a chance to run it.

It is laughable to suggest that PG Music, or any other software manufacturer, is in any way at fault because they haven't first sought permission from Symantec to release a new product. Imagine the delays if every software developer in the world had to first clear every new release or upgrade through Symantec first.

This year I decided to buy the PlusPAK download version. Norton flagged every file I downloaded as "Unsafe" but fortunately did not delete anything and I was able to tell it that I trusted the file and so there were no further issues.

For those who use Norton the default behaviour of the SONAR detection is to remove what it decides are "high certainty threats"


However, it is possible to change this so that you are prompted first:


Last edited by RWilliams; 12/15/13 03:23 PM.
Richard Williams
Sydney
Australia