Minimum Requirement: PowerPC, CD-ROM drive,
24MB RAM, 12MB free disk space, Internet connection, Mac
OS 8.1 (8.5 for control strip), Open Transport 1.3
(Norton AntiVirus 7.0 supports the following e-mail
clients for scanning: AOL® Mail, CE QuickMail, Claris
eMailer®, CTM PowerMail™, Eudora®, Lotus
Notes®, Mailsmith®, Microsoft®,
Entourage™, Microsoft®, Outlook® Express,
Netscape® Messenger, PostPet™)
Mac users are typically a fearless bunch when it comes to
viruses and hackers. It's not so much because our systems
are well nigh impregnable, but because there's never really
a point to...uh...well nigh impregnate them. So, each time a
co-worker pops into the office claiming, "Hey, if you get an
e-mail called 'Happy Sunshine Simpsons Fun Time,' don't
download it. It'll erase everything on your hard drive,
e-mail it to the Russians, launch nuclear weapons at Neptune
and kidnap your first born son," we can only smile and say,
"Not so much worried about it, but thanks. Now, did you pick
up our Diet Dr. Pepper yet?"
Sadly, those days may now be behind us. Sure, with fewer
Mac users, there will always be fewer Mac viruses and lonely
hackers checking our systems to see how many times we've
downloaded the
Lord
of the Rings trailer. However, with OS X comes those
UNIX underpinnings, and with those UNIX underpinnings come
more open ports. This makes the Mac just a bit more
susceptible to attack, which is problem number one. Problem
number two comes in the form of dedicated network
connections. With the rise in popularity of DSL and other
broadband connections, users are tending to stay online more
often and are even staying online when not at their
computers. Again, it's simple probability and statistics.
The longer you're online, the greater the chance of foul
play, and not the kind of
Foul Play
that follows the zany antics of Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn and
Billy Barty (although we never did trust that Billy
Barty...he always had that squinty eye).
Before we get too far, we'll reiterate that the best
defense against viruses is common sense. Turn off file
sharing if you don't need it, download only from sources you
trust, run NAV regularly, and shut off auto-play, for
starters. But if you want even greater security, you may
want to pick up a copy of the Norton Internet Security
Bundle, now compatible with OS X.
Norton AntiVirus 7.0
Besides inventing the GUI, electricity, and puppies,
Microsoft is also responsible for the vast majority of virus
threats to the Mac. This is because the omnipresent Office
suite allows PC users to attach "macro viruses" to their
files. Macros are platform-independent (like Java, and about
as useful), so the viruses (virii?) can screw with your
files just as well.
Which is good news for the Mac developers at Symantec.
Without macro viruses, there'd be like, one guy in the
department, playing Alone in the Dark and wondering if "CDEF
Megaworm" would sound better.
Shipping on a bootable disk, NAV installs and sets up in
minutes. You can configure it to set different areas of your
disk as "safe zones," meaning that any file created or
dragged to that area will be scanned. NAV automatically
looks for "downloads" folders and sets those up as zones,
but you can add others as needed. In fact, one of NAV's
greatest strengths is its ability to be customized. Most
people will stick with the default settings; if NAV detects
a virus it will try to repair the file. But you can crank it
up further, simply having NAV delete the file or eject the
disk it comes on, or if you're really paranoid, reject the
insertion of floppies altogether. Also included is a
password feature to prevent other users from altering your
settings.
Sounds great, right? Well, not for OS X users yet; there
currently is no native Auto Protect virus detection
available for those running OS X. E-mail scans and
auto-protect scans can only be performed on Mac OS X when
running in the Classic compatibility mode. Virus scans and
repairs, however, work just fine.
Norton updates their virus definitions once a month (more
during particularly notable emergencies), which NAV users
can access over the internet using the Live Update feature
in addition to downloading patches to the program itself.
The downloads are usually small, but if you have a poor
connection or you just forget, you can schedule NAV to check
for updates automatically.
If you already have Norton AntiVirus v7.0 or 7.0.1,
LiveUpdate allows users of Norton AntiVirus to update to the
v7.0.2. For new owners, the software can be installed into
Mac OS 8.1-9.x and the Mac OS X Classic environment to run
fully featured, and can also be installed into the native
environment to provide virus scans and repairs in Mac OS X.
Since Office can carry more viruses than a zombie with a
cold sore, better to prepare before the OS X version lowers
the resale value of your IP address by moving into your
network neighborhood. Simply put, Norton AntiVirus is a
must-have program, and there's no excuse for not having it
on your computer.
Aladdin Systems iClean
Now to the odd duck on the disk, Aladdin's iClean. iClean
is a handy utility for regularly purging sensitive
information from your computer. With a click of a button,
iClean will toss internet cookie files, clean your Web Cache
of all files, delete your internet History files, and empty
your trash. It'll also fix broken aliases.
If you're the kind of person who uses these functions a
lot, it'll save you a couple of steps. Bear in mind,
however, that if you visit the same web pages daily, keeping
them in your cache makes them load faster. Cookies also keep
you from having to log in to web pages over and over. Cookie
descriptions are often quite cryptic, so removing them tends
to be a tricky venture. iClean would be more useful if it
could offer more detailed descriptions on the cookies. As it
stands, it mainly just saves the hassle of digging deeply
into your folder hierarchy.
Norton Personal Firewall
The big draw in Norton Internet Security is Norton
Personal Firewall, which controls and monitors five areas of
incoming online activity. If you already have a malicious
program transmitting your data, or more likely, just have a
kid in the house, NPF doesn't monitor the stuff going out
(e.g., it's not useable as a web filter or log of user
internet activity). What it does control is file sharing
over TCP/IP, program linking over TCP/IP, remote log-ins,
Apple's Personal Web Sharing function, and "all others;" the
catch-all for the rest of your port functions. When
installed, the defaults are set to deny everything.
Fine with us, that's what we had them set to, anyway
(people with valuable data they need to share, however, will
appreciate the ability to customize the "allow access
to/deny access to" function built right on to the top level
of the control screen). Wanting to see what kind of activity
we would get, we told NPF to notify us for all activity as
well. All we saw was our ISP's e-mail server looking to
authenticate our access. It was denied each time, but
apparently wasn't that crucial, since our mail still went
out. It got annoying clicking off a(nother) dialogue box
each time we sent mail, so we turned it off and forgot about
it.
You can also set it up to allow or deny access by certain
IP addresses. This is especially handy for people on
networks and, like us, online gamers. Simply enter the IP
addresses of those you trust, and you won't have to worry
about keeping out those who should be able to access
your system.
In preparation for writing this review, we went back and
checked our logs. E-mail authorization, failed. E-mail
authorization, failed. E-mail authorization, fai--hey,
what's that?
It wasn't too long before an anonymous user tried to
access several ports on Bill's computer. All were denied.
Several more failed e-mail authorizations appeared over the
next few days, then an attempt from a different host, trying
to access ports on Bill's connection for unknown reasons.
Finally, someone else was soon looking for Sub7, a Windows
Trojan Horse.
Well, well.
NPF provided the bare-bones information: the time, the
host and IP of the attempt, and the port they were
attempting to access. As part of that dialogue box, you can
click on "more info." This takes you to a somewhat more
detailed page from Symantec, which tells you how to reach
the host, and what the user may have been looking for. In
the second instance, for example, we were told the "hacker"
may have been checking to see if Bill was running
NetBus, a Windows program which (Symantec tells us) gives
remote users control over computers.
Along with a reminder that they can't confirm the intent
was hostile, they also have links to the home pages of the
hosts. Bill's in contact with some of them now to figure out
what was going on. The rest of us are trying to figure out
what's so great about Bill's machine that he sees all this
suspicious activity. What's the guy hiding? No more what,
the usefulness of NPF is apparent. True, in two of those
cases, the probe was looking for Windows apps, but the
first...we found ourselves simultaneously more paranoid and
more secure, since we had NPF telling us about the stuff it
was finding. Freaky.
Norton Personal Firewall gives you all the information in
a clean, understandable manner, explaining the technical
stuff without oversimplifying it. It also makes it easy for
you to contact the appropriate people and give them the
information they need. If you just want to keep prying eyes
out of your stuff, it's a worthy install alongside NAV.
People who have to share data, though, will likely find it
invaluable.
Summary
We've always been fans of Norton AntiVirus. Although it
doesn't do everything, no antivirus program does. The most
recent versions of NAV have been rock solid, and Symantec's
monthly
updates and
online
help center are tremendously useful. We're still hoping
for a fully functional version for OS X, however, and
therefore only recommend the update to OS X users who
already have registered versions. Others may want to wait.
iClean...well, it's iClean; neither imperative nor
useless. If you find yourself annoyed with the residue left
behind from your internet travels, it's a handy program. If
not, at least Symantec doesn't force its installation.
And then there's Norton Personal Firewall. Now that we're
running OS X, this program will never be turned off. It runs
transparently, it's easy to customize, and, quite honestly,
it makes you feel cool. "Ha! See, they tried to break in and
steal the new They Might Be Giants album we downloaded
(legally) from
eMusic,
but they weren't smart enough for NPF!" And if you're not
using OS X or have a dedicated internet connection (all
programs offer both Classic and OS X installations on the
CDs), NPF will still offer security and peace of mind. And
isn't that how we Mac users like to feel?
So, there's our recommendation to OS X users. Pick up
Norton Personal Firewall now, but hold off on the entire
Norton Internet Security Bundle. Instead, complement NPF
later when a fully OS X compatible Norton System
Works--which currently comprises Norton AntiVirus, Norton
Utilities, Aladdin Spring Cleaning and Dantz Retrospect
Express--is released. Then, you can go back to being
fearless.
