Symantec Unveils 'Quorum': New Model Of Protection

Symantec, maker of Norton security software, has unveiled Norton Internet Security 2010 and Norton AntiVirus 2010 betas, which feature new reputation-based security technologies that tackle malware and other Internet threats head-on. The upcoming versions of Norton products mark a shift in the way the security software provider will protect computer users from cyber crime. This new protection model, codenamed ‘Quorum’ will be introduced to the mass market for the first time with the official product launch expected in fall 2009.

“Looking at the sheer volume of infected systems in the world, one thing is resoundingly clear: basic security protection is not good enough,” said Rowan Trollope, senior vice president, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec. “Norton pioneered the signature-based model of security and today we’re introducing a new standard that reconsiders all facets of protection. ‘Quorum’ lets us stop the bad guys even if we’ve never seen their ‘wanted’ poster.”

In spite of the shift to a constant flood of unknown malware, industry responses have been largely based on adjusting existing protection models rather than adopting a fresh approach. Project Quorum introduces not only new reputation-based threat detection, but also reconsiders other fundamentals such as security alerting, threat removal, anti-spam and parental controls.

Protection using ‘Reputation’

From Web page rankings to finding the perfect restaurant, the concept of reputation has harnessed statistics and ratings to solve a diverse series of problems online. Similarly, Symantec’s 2010 products use application reputation in response to the problem of dealing with online criminals who use unique, new threats to evade security vendors. Application reputation is created by leveraging the millions of users in the worldwide Norton Community Watch program, who choose to anonymously contribute data about the characteristics of the applications running on their systems.

Most users run mostly good applications, of known origins and with known publishers and other common attributes. Conversely, malware typically has never been seen before, has an unknown publisher, and other attributes that give it a poor reputation. This data enables Symantec to calculate a reputation safety score for each application. Without ever having to ask the user, Symantec can statistically infer with an extremely high degree of accuracy the likelihood of an unknown application being good or bad.

The Control System: SONAR 2

The next-generation behavioural anti-malware system, SONAR 2, intelligently measures feedback across the PC to make high-accuracy decisions, seamlessly switching between protection “fuel” types as needed.

SONAR 2 is designed to detect unknown threats by harnessing intelligence from all Norton protection features, whether it is driven by network communications, program activity on the system, leveraging reputation data in the cloud, or other defenses.

The New Dashboard Gauges

The new genre of deceptive threats that trick users into installing them by posing as software updates and codecs have made typical detection alerts outdated as they fail to describe what has happened in plain language. Norton 2010 will introduce a new experience that will help users better understand what has happened during an attempted infection, while still remaining unobtrusive. Novice users can now quickly grasp what took place while technically-savvy users can drill down to details such as the threat origin and any activities performed.

Beta Availability

These beta products are available for free public download now at:
Norton Internet Security 2010 beta: www.norton.com/nis2010beta Norton AntiVirus 2010 beta: www.norton.com/nav2010beta