July 17th, 2007
Symantec puts price tag on anti-botnet tool
Symantec’s new Norton AntiBot utility is now out of beta, promising to remove zombies from for-profit botnets scourge in exchange for $29.99 a year.
The anti-botnet tool (see previous coverage here) is being marketed as “complementary solution to existing antivirus or security suites,” adding yet another application to the list of security tools needed by PC users to avoid computer takeover attacks.
[ SEE: Symantec working on anti-botnet tool ]
Here’s a list of the products sitting on your machine, sucking valuable system resources under the guise of protecting you from hacker attacks: Anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-rootkit, anti-spam, drive-by browser protection, etc., etc.
It has to be the biggest con job in IT to convince consumers that they should pay a separate subscription for each of the above “protection” products. So you pay for virus protection, then pay a bit more for spyware protection, and if those don’t work, buy an anti-rootkit package and if your PC still falls into a botnet, here’s your $29.95 anti-botnet tool.
The raw details on the new Symantec tool:
Norton AntiBot uses active behavior-based heuristic detection system that is always on. This technology constantly analyzes the behavior of files and applications to ensure that otherwise invisible malware is tracked and eradicated as soon as it exhibits harmful behavior. As a result, Norton AntiBot is a complementary solution to existing antivirus or security suites, including Norton AntiVirus, Norton Internet Security, and Norton 360.
It will cost $29.99, which includes a one-year subscription to Symantec’s protection updates. Cha-ching.
Ryan Naraine is a journalist and security evangelist at Kaspersky Lab. He manages Threatpost.com, a security news portal. Here is Ryan's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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