Response to "Symantec removed from laptop"

This posting of SSBC's is a classic example of why the guy doesn't have a clue. I mean, he has absolutely no idea what constitutes an active threat, how the various engines within a product work, etc. The world has evolved well beyond static file scans. Hence, if you find a product that finds malware when you scan a directory, don't be surprised if it was "missed" by the previous product you had because not all products are designed the same.

In this case, I specifically want to address the comment "Amusingly, AVG identified 5 "infections" when it ran the first scan (see screen capture below)."

Researching the 6 pieces of malware in his screenshot you will realize that every single one of them JScript/HTML related. NIS2008 and the recently released NIS2009 have a feature called Browser Protection which detects malicious script when the browser attempts to open it. Independent tests from Secunia, Cascadia Labs and others clearly show that this feature is way better than any other malicious script detector on the market. But the way its designed is that the files will get downloaded to the TIFF. When the browser opens them, they will get caught. Hence ofcourse, AVG will find such files, because NIS does not remove the files from the disk. There is no need.

At the same time, Mr. Clueless doesn't realize that because AVG had specific signature detections for those malware, implies that they had to create VERY REACTIVE signatures for those specific JScript obfuscations. Norton on the other hand has very generic signatures that detect the exploitation of the vulnerability.

Once again, it just goes to show that one should not believe everything that one reads especially with regards to Internet Security reviews. Most reviewers these days simply believe that the static file scanner is the only engine present inside a security product. Therefore it there is a malicious file on this, it means that it goes past the static file scanner which means it got past the security product. What a joke ! Ofcourse, this same group of individual believe that VirusTotal is the definitive way to compare the real-world detection rates of security products.

SSBC is definitely in this group of "scholars" :-)

Response to "Symantec-free zone"

All I can say is "good riddance to bad rubbish". Why in the world did you stick with Symantec products for so long since 10/4/2007 when there were a lot of alternative products out there. The only reason I can think of is that you have a real beef with Symantec.

Are you are laid off former Symantec employee ?

Did they stiff you for a huge amount of money - all of 60 bucks :-) ?

Did you not know that Symantec offers a 30-day money back guarantee. If you dont like it you can return it. And even after that, if you call them up with a problem and they can't fix it you can get your money back.

So why did you stick with Norton. Maybe you care deeply about Symantec doing well and you really want to give them good feedback. Well, let me tell you, there isn't a single post on this blog with any constructive criticism.

In any case, if you read the forums you will see how the former haters love NIS2009. In contrast, AVG has a quickly declining user-base. Oh how their 8.0 products suck and are so bloated.

Good luck with AVG.

Response to "AVG updates are Lightning Fast compared to NIS"

There is an old saying "Its better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt". SSBC, take heed.

NIS2009 and NAV2009 sport a completely redesigned LiveUpdate engine. This was discussed at length during the Beta. It was one of the 300+ performance improvements that Symantec made for the 2009 products. The results were spectacular. It now takes under 4 seconds to check for updates. Download updates typically take under 30 seconds.

Speaking about size of updates. If AVG updates are less than 1MB, Norton's updates with the new "Pulse Update" feature are around a few KB. Yes, they come down every 5 minutes and they are a few kilobytes.

SSBC.. you are clueless.

The beginning

Hi everybody,

I will be dedicating this blog to exposing all the lies and general B.S. written by the individual at symantec-sucks.blogspot.com. This blog will refer to the owner(s) of this blog as SSBC (Symantec-Sucks.Blogspot.Com). Clearly that guy has a beef with Symantec . My guess is that he was probably a QA engineer at Symantec that got laid off since he seems to have so mainly issues with the QA at Symantec.

SSBC has never even seen the latest Norton Internet Security 2009 which may as well be a different product when compared with the earlier versions. They are fast, light, highly effective and people love it.

The silver lining though is that SSBC has moved on to AVG, which btw is a pretty crappy product especially the 8.0 version which most customers hate. The LinkScanner fiasco didn't help. What a bunch of idiots that designed such a feature that automatically crawls web pages even though you didn't visit them.

For EVERY blog posting that SSBC posts there will be response from this blog.