Norton 360 — Best Malware Removal Software in 2022

Nortonremains, overall, my favorite antivirus program through 2022. It boasts a powerful antimalware system and an assortment of internet security features. The online dashboard is simple and easy to use. It also offers good customer service. All this is at a fraction of the cost of other antivirus products.

Norton’s antimalware engines use machine learning, advanced algorithms and a constantly updating malware directory. The engine can detect malware of all types, from viruses and trojans through to ransomware and cryptocurrencyjackers. Norton’s full scan and real-time protection were able both to detect any malware files that I tried downloading during my testing. There was no system slowdown.

Norton also offers

• Firewall.
• Anti-phishing protection.
• Parental control.
• SecureVPN (virtual private networks)
• Cloud backup.
• Privacy protection.
• Webcam Protection (Windows only).
• Identity protection (US only)

Norton works well, but Norton is not perfect. To ensure your device is secure, you’ll need to install four additional apps. Norton’s VPN protects web access from all servers around the globe. However, it will not work with streaming media like Netflix or Hulu. The VPN is slower that most others and does NOT allow torrenting.

Norton 360 is not for everyone. However, it is an excellent deal. I was impressed with the variety of features offered by each package. Many other companies offer more features to their basic antimalware scan. But, the Norton 360 security instruments are all worth purchasing. Norton has a 60-day guarantee that you will be fully satisfied or your money back. You have plenty time and space to test the antivirus and make sure it works for you.

Norton 360 Full Reviews

Norton products include a variety high-value security and tools that can help enhance cybersecurity protections.

The cheapest plan includes protection for webcam, antiphishing and firewall. Also included is a password manager as well 10GB cloud storage.

Norton Security Features

Anti-Malware Engine

Norton uses machine-learning and an extensive malware list to detect malware. It also provides real-time protection from malware from iOS Android Windows Mac and Windows.

I downloaded a large number of malware files to test it. It also contained trojans. trojans. backdoors. keyloggers. rootkits. zero day attacks. ransomware. spyware. Cryptojackers. PUPs.

Norton detected all the malware files found on my hard disk and captured them 100% with a system scan. Only one competitor can boast such a high detection rate for malware (like Bitdefender & Avira).

After running Norton’s full scanning, my realtime protection was turned off and I tried downloading the same 997 malware-laden files in the formats of plain, encrypted, and zipped files. Norton also blocked any files that were uncomplicated before my computer could begin downloading them. Norton also blocked all files zipped and encrypted with malware when I tried extracting them.

Norton’s disk scan was completed on my personal computer in approximately 40 minutes. This is roughly the same time frame as other top competitors. Norton also offers other scanning options like:

• Fast scanner — Searches for areas that malware can be detected easily, such as running processes or temporary files.
• Specified folders and disk locations can be scanned
• Norton Intelligence Scans files quickly.

Norton makes it simple to schedule your virus scannings. Norton did a full scanner on me between 3 and 5 o’clock in the morning. I can then schedule monthly or weekly scans.

Norton’s scanning system detects whether apps are being run in fullscreen mode. Norton will not notify or initiate scans (including scheduled scanning) for you. This is a great feature. Gamers will be happy to know that Norton suspends notifications automatically when you are using fullscreen mode. Norton is one the most popular antiviruses for gaming.

Overall Norton’s anti-malware scanner is very effective. All of my tested malware was found in a system scan that didn’t slow down the computer. Real-time protection stopped any malware I tried downloading. Norton offers many scanning options. This includes a quick scan. It was easy to schedule scans.

Smart Firewall

Norton’s Smart Firewall has more power than Windows or macOS’ built-in firewalls. Norton was able, in fact to detect every network attack during my exploit testing.

Advanced users can modify Norton’s firewall. Norton’s firewall blocks many Windows Services, including File and Printersharing, Network Discovery and Remote Desktop Connection. If you want to allow any of these services, however, you can find the complete list in Permissionswindow.

Norton lists 136 unorthodox protocols. These protocols allow malware to communicate with network devices. Norton’s firewall monitors the protocols and notifies users whenever it detects suspicious activity.

Norton’s Smart Firewall has a high rating. It detected all network intrusions, as well as advanced users have a huge array of customization options.

Safe Web & Safe Search

Norton’s Safe Web extension has been added to Chrome Firefox Safari Safari Edge. It protects you against phishing sites, and offers community reviews.

Safe Web browser extension offers great anti-phishing protection. It detected almost all of the phishing website sites that I tested. This includes sites which Chrome or McAfee, top competitors, failed to detect.

Safe Web provides “Isolation Mode”, which helps protect financial information. Safe Web users can choose to set their browser in Isolation Mode. This blocks browser-based intrusions. Your browser will be “read-only”, to prevent malicious scripts and malware stealing information. Hackers might remotely record your screen, and possibly steal your financial details. Isolation Mode is a feature of Safe Web that makes it impossible to hack your computer.

Safe Web offered the isolation mode for my browser. When I accepted, my browser was disconnected form the rest of my computer. It couldn’t copy screencape, paste or screencape text.

Norton’s Safe Search Tool allows you to color-code search results. Red is hazardous, orange is potentially dangerous, while green is safe. Safe Search isn’t that great. During my tests it falsely claimed there were many safe websites. It also gave grey “untested” notifications to most sites that it actually considered safe.

Norton’s Safe Search wasn’t my favorite. It doesn’t accurately classify unsafe sites safe. Norton’s Safe Web browser extensions is a powerful tool to protect against phishing attacks. They also provide a secure and sandboxed environment for financial transactions.

Dark Web Monitoring (Selected Countries Only)

Norton’s dark Web Monitoring scans dark forums and credit reports to notify users of stolen information. LifeLock provides US users with strong identity protections.

Norton’s darknet monitoring scans are able to detect a large number of personally identifiable data (PII).

• Bank account numbers.
• Credit cards
• Addresses.
• Information concerning driver’s license
• Insurance numbers

Norton offers a more robust data breach monitoring platform than any other. This is accomplished by using human agents, who are paid for their work in dark web forums. Norton dark web assistants have the ability to locate information that few companies can’t. You can seek advice and get feedback if your information is posted to the dark net. This “real person approach”, which is superior to other database-based monitoring systems like Kaspersky, is more effective.

Additionally, dark web monitoring is activated every time you enter your data. Norton’s Dark Net Monitoring Team will issue a notification to your email with instructions on how you may protect your identity and accounts.

Norton offers a very good dark web monitoring system. US users can use Norton’s LifeLock identity safety and services.

Identity Theft Protection – Only in the USA

Norton LifeLock identity products provide a wealth of protection, including:

• Credit report monitoring
• Live Identity Recovery Assistance
• Legal assistance
• Credit freeze
• Court record, ID monitoring and home title

LifeLock’s identity theft protection services provide excellent protection. LifeLock will inform you about any loan or purchase, investment, rental request, credit card application, or purchase that may include any of your personal details. LifeLock compiles data of the three largest credit reporting companies in the US, Equifax and TransUnion. LifeLock notifies anyone who attempts to use your personal information.

LifeLock provides protection only for US users. BullGuard & TotalAV offer credit monitoring services in Europe, USA, and Canada at a fraction of the cost of LifeLock. However, their protections may not be as extensive as LifeLock.

Norton’s LifeLock plan is the best way to protect you identity, finances and personal identifying data. However, they are not available for US residents.

Secure VPN (Virtual Private Network).

VPNs can conceal your IP address behind any of many thousands of servers around world. It also encrypts your internet activity, which aids in privacy. Norton’s VPN may have its flaws and not as reliable 2022 as the best VPNs.

Norton Secure VPN allows users connection to multiple servers throughout the world using Norton Secure VPN. Norton has servers in Australia, South Africa, Japan, Singapore, and less well-known places like India or Ukraine.

Norton VPN includes many other security features.

• Strong encryption (256 bits AES).
• No-logs policy.
• Stop
• Blocking ad trackers
• Unlimited browsing data (even with cheapest plans).

Norton’s VPN has good connection speeds. The VPN does slow down the connection. Each VPN works differently so you will experience different speeds. Norton’s VPN wasn’t the fastest, although it was slower than Bitdefender’s and TotalAV’s antivirus competitors.

I use this internet connection to connect to my local network. It doesn’t use a VPN.

After that, I did speed tests with Norton VPN connected at a US-based server.

You can see that my download speeds were reduced significantly but that my “ping” increased substantially. If you stream or play video, the ping isn’t too much of a problem. However, Norton’s VPN enabled meant that I could still stream HD video and surf the internet without noticeable slowdowns.

Even though my download speed and Ping speed were the same, upload speeds dropped to half when I connected via Dutch servers.

Netflix US customers will be disappointed. Norton’s VPN can’t pass Netflix anti-VPN firewalls and I was unable o access Netflix US content. This is a problem as top VPNs such a ExpressVPN or CryptoGhost VPN can easily access most streaming services. Here are the top VPNs that work with Netflix.

Norton VPN prohibits torrenting. The VPN stopped working immediately I opened any torrent clients.

Norton Secure VPN is slower and doesn’t allow torrenting. It also doesn’t work with Netflix, ExpressVPN, standalone VPNs or other streaming sites. Norton antivirus is still highly rated and includes a VPN. It allows encrypted internet access through a variety servers around the world. This is something that few competitors offer.

Cloud Backup

Norton’s cloud backup is great. However, it’s only for PC users. It offers these options.

• Backups are a must.
• Save specific files.
• Recover or delete backup files from your local disc.
• Take backups of your data on local and cloud storage.

Cloud Backup works extremely well. It automatically selected 50GB worth files. Advanced users have the option to access the “What”, section and choose which folders they wish backup.

Norton’s Cloud Backup may not be the best, but it is a great solution for protecting your Cloud data. Depending on which Norton plan your have, you can access storage up to 10-500GB through Norton’s Cloud Backup feature.

Password Manager

Norton’s password management is quite good. Although many antiviruses offer basic password storage capabilities, they are not sufficient to make Norton’s password management stand out.

Despite not having the same functionality like standalone apps 1Password/Dashlane, it’s easy and secure with helpful extras

A list of Norton password managers is

• Secure 256-bit AES encryption
• Unlimited password storage.
• Synchronization for Macs (PCs), Androids (iOS devices and Macs), and Macs.
• Chrome extensions Firefox for Edge, Safari, Chrome and Chrome.
• Auto-save or auto-fill
• Password generator.
• Password vault auditing.

Norton enabled me to import my password vaults through Chrome, Firefox and Dashlane. This was after I created my master password.

Having imported my passwords into LastPass, I navigated to PayPal. Norton showed me a small icon. I typed my email address in one click and then entered my password.

Norton uses vault auditoring tools to beat other antivirus companies. The useful chart indicates which passwords are most secure and which ones are too easy or repeated. It also shows how old the passwords are. The “Autochange” function of the vault auditing program can generate new passwords automatically. Norton’s Autochange function does not work for all sites. Dashlane offers a better alternative — it works on a few hundred sites more than Norton’s.

Norton’s Password Manager features a mobile login function. It allows users access their vault from their mobile device and not their master password.

Norton’s password manager isn’t perfect. Norton was unable to offer account recovery and emergency access. That was my first problem. This means that if you forget your master password, you won’t have the ability to log in to any password vault. Norton offers only one solution: to destroy the vault, and make a brand new one. Norton lets users create a password hint. It is not possible to make an indication for a string composed of random numbers and letters. This is what the master passphrase should be.

Users may appreciate that there are no account recovery options. However, con artists won’t be able to access your vault. I think most users will prefer email account Recovery options or emergency contact options like LastPass.

Norton’s password manage isn’t as powerful and flexible as standalone products, but provides multi-device backup, a secure codes generator, password Auto-fill (password auto-saving), password autofill (password auto-fill), mobile login, vault auditing, and password autofill. Norton was the number one antivirus program with password management in 2022.

Parental Controls for Safe Families

Norton includes parental controls on Android, iOS, Windows, and Windows. These controls are not available for Mac.

Norton’s parental control gives parents the option to:

• This allows you to filter inappropriate content accurately.
• Hulu and YouTube videos.
• Track location for mobile devices.
• Block Android apps
• You can set time limits for all devices and plan your usage
• Set emergency contacts.

I’ve tried many parental controls tools to find one that was suitable for my little girl. Many antivirus parental control tools promise many features, but most don’t live up to their promises. BullGuard allows you to filter content online with many options. BullGuard parental controls allowed me to view violent and porn video.

Norton blocked numerous websites during my tests. Norton was able block 47 different categories websites, including those that promote “Cult”, Hate Speech, or Abortion. It automatically creates filters based off your child’s age. It allows users to toggle each parental control separately.

Norton Safe Family features a “School Time” option. This allows only apps and websites the parent considers essential for their child’s education to be accessible. This can be very useful for any child involved in virtual education.

Safe Family also documented every search, YouTube video and Hulu programme I made from my iPhone, Chromebook, and PC.

All Norton’s usage scheduling, location monitoring, and app blocker tools can be accessed from the online dashboard. Amazingly Norton was able at 65 feet to locate my iPhones exact location.

Norton’s GPS Tracker is not equipped to send geo-fencing notifications so parents can be notified if their children go outside of a restricted zone. Bitdefender, Bitdefender (and other companies) include geofencing into their parental controls. This would make Norton’s product lines even better.

Norton Safe Family is very proud of its content filtering capabilities, app block, usage limitations and location tracking. This app is undoubtedly the most intuitive and comprehensive parental control application on the market.

Privacy Monitor

Norton’s Privacy Watch is a straightforward, yet effective feature that protects private identifying information (PII), against being sold and used to market data brokers.

Data brokers make use of metadata from thousands on websites to create an identity profile. The profile can include your name, last address, family members, favourite brands, birth date, and gender. Data brokers make a profit by selling this information at the highest price.

Data brokers cannot collect or sell your information in accordance with privacy laws. Norton asks about 25 data brokers for their permission to stop collecting your data.

Access Norton’s Privacy monitoring can be accessed from the my.norton internet portal. Privacy Monitor offers a list of the names and dates associated with your birth.