Symantec has rolled out Norton Internet Security 2009 and Norton AntiVirus 2009, which are aimed at addressing the changing online threat landscape.

Company vice president, Asia-Pacific and Japan consumer business David Freer said online threats have moved from duping users into opening attachments, to the current situation where cybercrooks hack into known and legitimate Web sites to prey on unsuspecting visitors.

"This means that one can still be attacked by visiting legitimate sites as attackers focus on finding Web site flaws," he said, adding that as more people spend time online, attackers are regionalising threats and making them language and service-specific.

Those who are accustomed to viewing and downloading multimedia such as videos and photos also are open to attacks, as hackers use this platform to dupe users into installing fake codes and set up applications that will lead to Trojan, malware and spyware installations.

To counter such threats, Norton 2009 comes with Norton Protection System, a multi-layered system that provides browser protection for Firefox and Explorer to safeguard users from Web-based attacks.

It also features an enhanced intrusion protection system engine for multimedia attacks and Sonar advanced protection for real-time protection against unknown threats.

Meanwhile, Symantec's senior product manager Jody Gibney pointed out that Norton Internet Security 2009 installs in 52 seconds, uses less than seven megabytes of storage, and is capable of scanning in 33 seconds.

Among its enhancements are improving user experience with zero- impact performance, she said.

These include features such as Silent Mode, where the software suspends alerts and updates automatically to avoid interrupting user activities, and Smart Scheduler, where it handles scans and other activities when the PC is idle.

Norton Internet Security 2009 is priced at RM169 for a single PC licence while Norton AntiVirus 2009 goes for RM129 for a single PC licence. Both products will be available in the middle of this month.