For the vast majority of users, at least, the current model of paying for and installing separate online security software products for each device, OS and transaction environment is on the way out. It has to die.
Why? Look at the way the kids use Google, and then look to the future.
Increasingly, users expect to be able to communicate and transact across a variety of devices. And younger users - the very people who use laptops, smartphones and public internet terminals - have less concept of the various operating systems and operating environments they use. Put bluntly: they don't care, they just want to get online, all the time.
Give it a year or two, then, and today's students and stoners will be spending hard cash online via a variety of devices as a matter of course. Particularly if companies like MySpace finally get music downloads right, and the kids start paying for their kicks. Cash attracts criminals, but the current model of shelling out 50 quid to protect a Windows PC against malware signatures isn't going to cut it. Not my sentiments, those of Symantec bigwig Con Mallon.
Mallon believes that in the 'next two years' security software will become platform neutral. He said that Symantec's job is to get its Norton products to "secure access on and off the net" so the set-and-forget it crew can expand their software use without compromising security.
Using the fact that Norton Internet Security 2009 now supports Firefox, I suggested that at some point Symantec would need to go cross platform and embrace Mac OS X, and bring the currently pay-for Norton smartphone product into the NIS bundle. Mallon agreed, suggesting that the move away from Windows-based desktop computing and into a multi-platform cloud-computing world represented a challenge, but a"new opportunity that will take a lot more work" for Symantec.
Of course, what no security company will say on the record right now is that the mobile security threat is really only in its infancy. Most of the mobile malware that exists is proof of concept. Kaspersky, for instance, is happy to offer its mobile product for free to some users, in order to boost its community for future cloud applications. And the most compelling reason for mobile phone security software is so you can brick the thing when you lose it down the pub.
But the threat is coming. So expect NIS 2012 and its rivals to be a very different beast from the current release.
See also:
Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 review
Comments
Matt Egan said: Well Im sorry to hear that Leo But my substantive point remains the same if you have a problem with FE the way to handle is to either a email him to set out your concerns or b post your concerns in the relevant forum The bottom line is FE is unlikely to read your comments in the blogs section let along respond to them so posting on non-related blog entries is good only for venting your spleen
Leo said: Yes Matt fair comment but as a forum member I do witness some posters innocuous replies regularly being deleted which is very rare within the blogs So I can understand why some members do eventually turn to the open blogs to vent their anger or simply just to reveal the nasty practices and cliques within Often a resulting complaint or gripe simply ends up being erased out by the FEAs an old timer on this site I can honestly say that the FE is intolerant and unjustly allows his favourite wizards to get away with rudeness aggression and blatant rule breakingAnti VirusI would initially concentrate on the insidious malware creeping in and out of PCA Towers Its a real sham and shame
Matt Egan said: All of which is fair comment But I do have a problem with the constant anonymous spamming of unrelated blog posts with FE-bashing FE is plenty big enough and ugly enough to look after himself but having a go at him on a posting that has nothing to do with him is pointless
Matt Egan said: And anyway I want to talk about the future of AV What do you mean most of the blogs usually fail to get a healthy response
ide busman said: Someone is making a interesting point here You can say almost anything within the Blogs whereas the same cannot be said for the ForumsMany a thing that I have read which is written by the PCA staff would definitely be removed if it appeared within the forumsFarcical reallyAnyway Norton is rubbish
Mark said: If these guy stops posting their dull pointless dumb-sounding drivel then the blogs will be history for me As far as I can see most of this section can be dull pointless and real drivel except when a few crazos bother to reply and liven it up Lets be honest most of the blogs usually fail to get a healthy response Therefore the next couple of weeks should be telling I used to read and post onto the Forums over the last 8 months but I dont bother any more because it is run by an aged and stodgy geezer with a bad attitude Sorry guys and PCA but thats just my honest view
Matt Egan said: Por favor - again Really You need to a start using your actual name and b get over whatever problem it is you have with FE Actually c start saying what you mean instead of couching your comments in clever terms FE is someone I respect enormously who has a wealth of experience and a vast amount of knowledge But he is very much is own man with his own opinions - thats how we like him If Microsoft or PC Advisor or anyone told FE what to say or to toe the party line hed be out of the door before you could say FE-shaped hole in the wall So man up use your real name and tell us your beef in a way we can understand feel free to email me But stop with the dull pointless dumb-sounding drivel
Por favor said: Well according to your guru the Forum Ed he previously repeated the mantra that when Vista was about to be excreted then no one will need the likes of Norton nor McAfeePlus he toe sucked with the Microsoft tactics that no kernel code should be shown to those queers at any cost because Vista would be King and they will be beheadedSo Matt according to your mates in the Costas we still have Norton till 2012Just goes to show you that the gutter press uses a very wide brolly Dont think much of fe the fool that holds it either