Symantec unveils Vista-generation care pack

Symantec has released a public beta of the product it hopes will head off Microsoft's entry into the security market.

Norton 360 is a package of software and services that includes not only familiar Symantec features such as anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-phishing firewall and PC utility modules but also automated online back-up and online transaction security.

The company says the new security features of Windows are not good enough to put third-party security vendors out of business, despite a rapidly retracted claim to the contrary from Microsoft executive James Allchin.

And Symantec's UK consumer sales director Lee Sharrocks says the Windows Live One Care service has yet to generate a lot of interest.

The story is almost as old as the PC for Symantec and the various companies (including Norton) that it has acquired over the years. Just about every new release of Windows has incorporated functionality previously only available from third parties like Symantec – with the curious exception of a satisfactory Undelete module, which was a major selling point of the original Norton Utilities. Symantec has always found gaps enough in Windows to give it a market.

Sharrocks says Norton 360 is part of a new Security 2.0 program designed to defend against a new set of problems faced by the Web 2.0 generation.

Hence the transaction security module, which includes simplified authentication and is designed to make users feel safe when buying and banking online.