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McAfee gives Norton a good punch on the nose

In a survey commissioned into the varying abilities of different anti-virus software, the McAfee branded package, McAfee Site Advisor, has been judged to be a far superior product to the Norton Safe Web.

McAfee Site Advisor comes equipped with a number of additional features that are not available from Norton. McAfee Site Advisor conducts safety checks for all hyperlinks included in emails and Instant Messages, it also works independently of other security software, making it a ‘stand alone’ product and there are automatic virus definition updates that are regularly distributed. In comparison, the Norton Safe Web does not feature any of these different features.

A further advantage of choosing the McAfee Site Advisor products is that they analyse websites for a far greater variety of threats. In addition to checks for spyware, malware, viruses and phishing dangers, McAfee carries out frequent searches for spam, scams and risky affiliations. Norton does not.

The McAfee Site Advisor product has become one of the most successful packages in the history of the company. Here is a list of some of the different awards it has received:

• Top Rated by CiNet and awarded five stars
• Excellence in Innovation from the US Department of Commerce
• Time Magazine Award for ‘Time 50 Coolest Websites’
• Best of What’s New Award from the Popular Science Award
• 100 Best Products of 2007 from PC World
• Customer Impact Award from MITX
• Best Technologic Idea of 2007 from Economia

Instant Threats

McAfee have stated that they expect the threat of viruses spreading through the medium of Instant Messages to grow into one of the most potent problems the Internet security industry has to face. During the last few months, a rapid increase in the number of viruses being transmitted via Instant Messenger have already been detected.

There are many different reasons for attackers to utilise Instant Messenger as a medium to spread viruses. Firstly, a threat can be transmitted to many different computers quickly within a very short period of time and secondly, victims can have a ready-made list of contacts that can quickly be hit and most people consider Instant Messenger to be a safe medium of communication. In 2007 there were 10 high-severity instant messenger risks detected by McAfee, in 2006 there were none. In stark contrast, this year McAfee expect there to be more than 20.

Instant Messenger attacks can be serious. Attackers can install spyware or malware on your computer and they can also automate the ‘flash’ worm so that a carrier does not know that it is infected – causing the virus to be mixed amongst legitimate messages and confusing the recipient as to which ones are valid and which are not. In this environment, viruses thrive and can be much more difficult to suppress.

Google is the new target

Internet hackers are constantly looking for new ways to invade the computers of others and the latest method that they have pioneered is through the internet search engine Google.

During the early part of 2008 hackers have developed a form of manipulating pages that use the JavaScript programme to infect thousands of sites. These mutated sites are then listed in the directory of the Google search engine and start to attract traffic.

One of the main aims of this process is to lead the user into a situation where he or she is pressured to disclose sensitive information. Either this, or the programme runs a sophisticated code on your computer, locating passwords and other private information.

According to White Hat Security, a company that is based in Santa Clara, as many as seven in every ten website could be susceptible to this new security risk. Many of the websites don't even realise that they have been affected.

A number of prominent websites fell victim to this latest internet menace, amongst them Wal-Mart, Target, Sear and Bloomingdale's and the blog of TalkingBiz - run by the University of North Carolina.

All of these companies maintained that customers had been exposed to only very little risks. Wal-Mart said that its site had not been affected at all, and that it does everything to prevent its customers from 'fraudulent online activity.' Sears meanwhile said that it is currently 'talking the appropriate steps to ensure the Web site's security.'

There were other attacks on the Internet in March 2008 that were reported by Websense, a security vendor in San Diego. They reported that hackers were probing the Internet looking for vulnerabilities to an attack that allowed the hackers to get into and make changes to any SQL server databases behind the vulnerable sites.

The US Department of Homeland Security urged citizens to ensure that their internet protection software was up to date and to be vigilant when online.

By clicking on the link below you can read our editor's reviews of some of the security packages that are offered by McAfee. When it comes to online threats, the language can sometimes be confusing and full of technical jargon.

Hopefully by reading through some of these guides you will be able to decide better which is the perfect McAfee product for your specific requirements. McAfee Virus Scan, McAfee Internet Security and McAfee Internet Protection all operate in different ways. Click the link below to find out more about them.

We have also collected a number of customer reviews from people who have purchased and been using McAfee software packages. So by clicking on this link below you can find out more about what people thought of products such as McAfee Internet Security, McAfee Total Protection and McAfee Virus Scan Plus.