Firewall protection

Regarding firewall protection, we like that Norton Security Premium can detect the network profile you set in Windows and adapt its protection accordingly. When you set your network as private or public, so does Norton's firewall module. This is a good approach, and we wish that many other security products did the same.

To get an idea of how efficient Norton Security Premium is regarding firewall protection, we used two network vulnerabilities scanners: Nmap and Nessus. When we used a private network profile, Nmap found 8 open ports and Nessus found 6. When we set our test laptop to use a public network profile, neither Nmap nor Nessus managed to identify any open ports or other significant information, except for the MAC address, but that is not important from a security point of view.

Norton Security Premium offers a solid firewall that can protect you efficiently, without needing any special input from the user. It is especially effective when you are connected to public networks, which is great.

Antivirus and antispyware protection

We began by checking how good Norton Security Premium is at protecting you while surfing the internet in your favorite web browser. To do that, Norton Security Premium installs a security toolbar in Chrome and a security extension in Firefox. Both of them check whether the websites you intend to visit are safe or not. Unfortunately, Norton's security extensions are not offered in any other web browsers. We used these browsers and tried to navigate through a series of malicious and phishing websites. Norton promptly stopped us with a danger alert. However, in Microsoft Edge and Opera, we were able to visit all the malicious websites we wanted. Unless you are a Chrome or a Firefox user, you will not get any web protection from Norton Security Premium which is not good.

The next thing we did was to check what the security suite did when we connected a USB memory stick filled with malware. The good news is that the Norton Security Premium automatically scanned the memory stick as soon as we plugged it in. It identified and removed 9 out of the 12 infected files on it, and it cleaned the rest of 3 when we opened them in File Explorer. This is an average result. Norton should have cleaned everything from the start.

For the next test, we took our Windows 10 laptop, and we infected it with a bunch of nasty viruses and ransomware. Then, we went online and asked Norton Security Premium to download and install itself on our computer. The security suite was able to do that and, as soon as it started its core processes, it began detecting and removing the malicious files we placed on the computer. It took two reboots and a full computer scan, but the laptop was usable again when all was said and done.

An antivirus engine is not good enough if it is too slow, so that is why we also measure the time it needs to run a full antivirus scan of our 126 GB system partition with 35GB of data on it. To scan it, Norton Security Premium required only 2 minutes, which is very fast.

Finally, we also took a look at what independent security organizations had to say about Norton:

• AV-Test rated Norton with a verdict of 6 points out of 6 for Protection, 5.5 points out of 6 for Performance and 6 points out of 6 for Usability.
• AV-Comparatives gave Norton their top Advanced+ mark for the Performance and Real-World Protection tests, and their basic Tested mark in the Malware Protection test.
• Virus Bulletin did not test Norton's security products, and the company is not a part of their tests for a long time.

When it comes to the antivirus and antimalware protection it offers, Norton Security Premium is a mixed bag: on the one hand, the antivirus is fast and efficient at removing malicious files from your computer. However, it can protect you while browsing the web only if you use Chrome or Firefox. Unfortunately, other browsers do not get any preventive protection.

Extra features

Besides its main protection features, Norton Security Premium also bundles a few additional tools that you may find useful:

• Norton Identity - a password manager that stores your passwords safely and keeps them synced between different computers, browsers, and mobile devices. It works with Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and Android and iOS.
• Norton Backup - is a backup and restore tool that lets you create copies of your data. You can save those backups locally, on your computer, or you can upload them to Norton's cloud space, where you get 25GB of free space included.
• Norton Performance - includes a few tools used for optimizing your computer's performance. You get an Optimize Disk tool, a File Cleanup tool, and a Startup Manager. They do what they say, but we do not find them too useful considering that what they do can also be done from Windows 10.
• Norton Family - is a product that is not bundled with Norton Security Premium. To be able to use it, you have to download and install Norton Family separately. We found it to be easy to configure and use. If you have children, it can be useful to you.
• Norton Studio - is a universal Windows app that lets you view, manage and explore the Norton products that you own. It can be useful to some users.

Norton Security Premium bundles a few additional features and tools, and some of them might be useful to you. However, we would have wished that it also included a VPN tool to protect you when you connect to unsafe public Wi-Fi networks.

Default settings you might want to adjust

Norton Security Premium is a security suite that is well configured in general, but there still are a few settings that you might want to change:

• If you do not want to get any "Special Offer Notifications" from Norton Security Premium, you should disable this setting. You will find it in "Settings -> Administrative Settings."
• If you want to stop notifications and background tasks so that you are not bothered with information about what is happening on your computer, you can enable the Silent Mode. You can find this option in "Settings -> Administrative Settings."

Norton Security Premium is a security product that is well configured by default, and there are very few things you should change.

What is your opinion about Norton Security Premium?

As you have seen, Norton Security Premium has plenty of good things to show off, but it also has important negatives. We like its antivirus engine and its firewall module, but we do not like the way it handles web browsing protection. What about you, what do you think? Is Norton Security Premium worth its money? Do you like their approach regarding browsing the web in a secure manner?