Norton AntiBot goes into public beta

These days criminal enterprises don’t just want to steal your Outlook contact list, they want to own your computer, and they will download a remote-access Trojan horse at the first available opportunity. Within the last six months, Symantec has seen the number of these “bot” infections increase 29 percent over the previous six months. That’s why Symantec is rushing to market a new application they’re calling Norton AntiBot.

While most antivirus applications today provide adequate protection against spyware and malware, once these are removed, your machine is vulnerable to new and different variations of the same. Say a site you visit has been compromised with a stealth-like iFrame that, each time you visit the page, downloads a different Trojan. Syamntec has licensed new behavior-based technology that picks up on this activity and proactively protects your computer from repeat attacks.

Norton AntiBot is designed to compliment Symantec’s existing SONAR technology, a behavior-monitoring and blocking feature acquired from a company called Whole Security last year and currently available on Norton Antivirus, Norton Internet Security, and Norton 360.

The download for the public beta, along with appropriate caveats, can be found on the

Symantec site. Information on price and final availability was not available at press time.