Norton looks to keep you safe from ID theft with new Identity Advisor Plus platform

Norton has launched a new Identity Advisor Plus service for identity theft protection and restoration

The antivirus and security software provider says it developed the software to tackle potential ID theft and the restoration of ID theft, which it claims has affected 30% of Brits.

The company cited its own recent research that found over half (55%) of British adults admitting they would have no idea what to do if their identity was stolen.

Norton Identity Advisor Plus 

Dark web monitoring from Norton ID theft advisor plus

(Image credit: Norton Security)

Norton Identity Advisor Plus offers a mix of social media monitoring, personal information monitoring and dark web monitoring tools to highlight suspicious activity on existing accounts. The software also highlights if personal information is being accessed elsewhere on the web without consent. 

The social media monitoring software focuses on the most popular social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Customers can sign up to use the new Identity Advisor Plus software now, with an easy-to-use Norton dashboard allowing its experts to detect any suspicious activity on your behalf, from £29.99 for the first year

The subscription also comes with Identity Restoration Support, including a devoted Restoration Specialist who acts as your case manager for handling any information breach, collecting ID theft case evidence and overseeing any necessary communication with third parties. They’ll also talk you through any necessary steps to restore your online identity and recover stolen information until your case is resolved. 

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Norton 360 running on a PC, laptop and phone

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The launch is the latest release from Norton as it bids to help keep customers safe and secure online.

The cybersecurity experts have also recently  released Norton 360 Advanced, a complete online security package to keep your data private and secure online. The platform includes a password manager, 200GB PC cloud backup, a secure VPN and parental control tools in order to help defend your whole family against cyberthreats. 

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We've put together a help guide on which Norton antivirus plan you should get. Alternatively, here’s our rundown of the best identity theft protection services, best password managers, best antivirus software and best VPN service providers available today.

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Norton antivirus features comparison: what you get with Norton plans

Norton has a range of products from basic antivirus to full-featured internet security suites, offering plenty of options for buyers to ensure they can get the right package for their needs.

But with so many plans available, you'll want to make sure that the Norton subscription you sign up for has the exact features you require.

Below we’ve laid out the features available across Norton’s different subscription plans. Unsurprisingly, as you go up the range, you get more features – but the other bonus is that the amount (and type) of devices supported increases with them.

Norton AntiVirus Plus only covers 1 PC (Windows or Mac), and Norton 360 Standard covers 1 device, too (but it can be a PC, mobile phone or tablet). When you step up to Norton 360 Deluxe, support for up to 5 devices (PCs or phones) is provided, and finally Norton 360 Premium extends that coverage to 10 devices.

So bear this in mind as you peruse the following breakdown of Norton’s various features that informs you exactly which suites have what, with a neat summary to cap things off at the end.

Antivirus and ransomware protection

Available on Norton AntiVirus Plus, 360 Standard, 360 Deluxe, 360 Premium

These are the core defenses for your devices. Norton’s antivirus engine prevents malware from infecting the system (with real-time protection, and on-demand scanning when needed), plus there are additional ransomware countermeasures to help fend off any of these particularly nasty attacks. Every single Norton product offers these fundamental pillars of protection, as you’d expect.

Norton Firewall Settings

(Image credit: Norton)

Firewall

Available on Norton AntiVirus Plus, 360 Standard, 360 Deluxe, 360 Premium

Norton’s firewall is also a core protective element present throughout all the firm’s products, which gives you beefier defenses than the built-in Windows firewall (and Macs are also covered).

It’s a cleverly implemented smart firewall that gives you plenty of detail about what it’s doing, and how it works. For example, it won’t just pop-up a message saying that such and such an app is trying to connect to the internet, do you want to let it? Rather, Norton’s firewall will explain nuances like whether the app has many downloads or is very new (and therefore possibly fake and just concocted to deliver malware), and security aspects like if the app is digitally signed. Basically, you’re armed with a lot more info to guide any decision-making.

Password Manager

Available on Norton AntiVirus Plus, 360 Standard, 360 Deluxe, 360 Premium

You’re likely familiar with the humble password manager, but for the uninitiated, it’s a tidy little tool that takes care of all password duties, generating and automatically remembering secure passwords for all your various online accounts. If you have trouble trying to make up passwords which are secure enough, yet still memorable – or you write them down, which obviously isn’t a good idea security-wise – then this can take all that hassle off your hands.

Norton stores passwords in the cloud in encrypted form, and the password manager also assists with other time-saving features like an auto-form fill which allows you to fill in online forms with just a click of the mouse.

Norton Cloud Backup

(Image credit: Norton)

PC Cloud Backup

Available on Norton AntiVirus Plus, 360 Standard, 360 Deluxe, 360 Premium

Norton’s Cloud Backup is an online cloud storage locker which holds copies of the crucial files on your PC. Like any backup solution, this provides a way of recovering files if you suffer some kind of disaster like a ransomware attack that locks away all your data (which you shouldn’t, not with Norton on guard anyway, but you could also run into something like a drive failure).

PC Cloud Backup automatically can run backups periodically so you don’t have to remember, and it’s dead easy to use. This is a very valuable extra available with all Norton products, although there are a couple of caveats. Firstly, it’s only for Windows PCs, and secondly, with Norton AntiVirus Plus you don’t get much space (2GB). Norton 360 Standard provides 10GB, but it’s only with the top two tiers that you get a good chunk of storage, namely 50GB with Deluxe and 75GB with Premium.


Secure VPN

Available on Norton 360 Standard, 360 Deluxe, 360 Premium

A VPN provides extra security beyond antivirus and firewall protection, encrypting your internet traffic and ensuring that no one (including your ISP) can snoop on it (see our full explainer for a thorough explanation of how a VPN works). A VPN can be particularly useful to provide additional protection when you’re on potentially unsecure public Wi-Fi hotspots (such as when in a café, for example).

Norton includes the Secure VPN service with its security suites (but not AntiVirus Plus), with unlimited data so it can cover you the whole time you’re online, improving your anonymity as well as security, as well as potentially allowing you to access streaming services in countries abroad that you wouldn’t otherwise get.

SafeCam

Available on Norton 360 Standard, 360 Deluxe, 360 Premium

This is Norton’s webcam protection which defends against malware that can try to take control of the camera to take sneaky pictures – or even video – of you.

This feature basically watches for untrusted programs trying to access the webcam, and flags them up so you can block them (or not). And don’t worry, it intelligently deals with obvious cases such as apps like Zoom, automatically granting them access to the camera instead of bothering you with any prompts.


Parental Control

Available on Norton 360 Deluxe, 360 Premium

The Parental Control module present in Norton’s higher-end suites provides a raft of functions to help ensure that your kids stay safe online. It boasts an in-depth system of controls with not just web content filtering, but the ability to monitor where they browse, or what videos they watch. Norton even goes as far as GPS tracking for phones, so you can see where your kids are in the real world, not just online.

This is a powerful feature, but like the Cloud Backup facility, it only works with Windows PCs and not Macs (though of course the mobile device monitoring works with phones, both Android and iOS).

Children gathered around a tablet while parents are distracted in background

(Image credit: Norton)

School Time

Available on Norton 360 Deluxe, 360 Premium

This is a relatively new addition which was bolted on to the Parental Control module in October 2020, after the education of kids was disrupted by the pandemic and lockdowns, and remote learning came into play. When School Time is switched on, your child is allowed to access certain websites – those needed for their education and classes – while other sites that could distract them from schoolwork are blocked.

This feature can be turned on or off as needed, or scheduled to run during school hours.

Dark Web Monitoring

Available on Norton 360 Deluxe, 360 Premium

As you’re doubtless aware, when data breaches happen (all too often, sadly), huge slabs of information on users can be stolen, including personal details, passwords and so forth. This kind of data can often be dumped or sold on the dark web, where criminals may find all sorts of nefarious uses for it, such as breaking into your account, or identity theft.

With this monitoring feature, Norton keeps a close eye on the dark web for any signs of your email address appearing – and if it finds anything, you’ll be immediately alerted, allowing you to take any necessary remedial action. Note that this feature is only supported in certain regions, namely: Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, plus the UK and US.

Norton running on a PC, laptop and phone

(Image credit: Future)

Norton features at a glance

Available on Norton AntiVirus Plus: Antivirus and ransomware protection, Firewall, Password Manager, PC Cloud Backup. Supports 1 PC.

Available on Norton 360 Standard: All of the above plus Norton Secure VPN, SafeCam. Supports 1 PC or phone/tablet.

Available on Norton 360 Deluxe: All of the above plus Parental Control, School Time, Dark Web Monitoring. Additional support for up to 5 devices.

Available on Norton 360 Premium: All of the above plus extended support for up to 10 devices.

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How does Norton 360 for Gamers protect your device?

Norton 360 for Gamers is a version of the Norton 360 security suite which is specifically aimed at you guessed it – gamers!

But if all you're doing is playing games in the comfort of your own home, why should you need an antivirus tool? In this article, we break down in detail exactly how Norton 360 for Gamers helps to protect your PC, and what additional defenses are present for gamers in particular.

Core antivirus protection

Norton 360 for Gamers gives you the same core defenses against malware as the vanilla Norton 360 internet security suite. To be precise, you receive everything that subscribers to Norton 360 Deluxe get, plus the gaming extras we’ll come onto in the next section.

That includes real-time protection to keep malware off your PC, on-demand scans, heuristics to detect freshly released threats, and dedicated anti-ransomware tech. As we found in our full Norton antivirus review, these combine to provide a very solid level of core protection.

Norton 360 for Gamers

(Image credit: NortonLifeLock)

Norton puts its antivirus money where its mouth is, with the firm’s ‘virus protection promise’ that gives the customer their money back if a device is hit by malware which Norton’s experts can’t remove.

Further protection is provided by some high-quality URL filtering to keep your web browsing safer, and Norton also implements an intelligent firewall. The latter is a very informative firewall that can help you make decisions on untrusted programs which are trying to use your internet connection – this is a pleasingly fresh and useful approach to firewall execution.

Extras, extras…

Those are the main defenses, then, but Norton 360 for Gamers also delivers the security suite extras found in Norton 360 Deluxe. That includes a backup facility with 50GB of cloud storage space, which could come in very handy if things go awry (always back up your important files, no matter how confident you are in the security of your PC). There’s also a password manager and webcam protection.

Another nifty feature is a built-in VPN, which is far from standard with security suites. To be precise, this is Norton Secure VPN and while it might be a relatively basic VPN service, it’s solid enough and a great bundled inclusion adding to the value proposition here.

Using a VPN for gaming helps to protect your privacy and anonymity online, with other benefits such as geo-blocking. That enables you to, say, stream content you wouldn’t otherwise be able to access. A VPN can also help you avoid the likes of DDoS attacks, which can be aimed at you to bog down your internet connection and ruin an online gaming session.

DDoS attack alert showing on a screen

(Image credit: FrameStockFootages / Shutterstock)

Dark Web Monitoring keeps an eye out for any of your personal details or data being involved in a data breach, because the knowledge that something has been spilled online can enable you to react quickly and keep your accounts secure.

Finally, those with children will appreciate the parental control system. This is a seriously good package to protect kids when they’re online, with all manner of content filtering and the ability to set time limits on device usage, as well as thorough location tracking facilities to keep tabs on your offspring not just online, but in the real world via GPS too.

Gaming goodies

On top of all the above, Norton 360 for Gamers offers a number of extras targeted specifically at those who enjoy PC gaming. We’ve already touched on the Dark Web Monitoring feature, which with the gaming suite is extended to also cover gamer tags and accounts, helping to keep these safe from exploits by nefarious types who may come across your leaked details.

Gamers running Windows also get the benefit of fewer notifications from Norton, with the suite able to detect when you’re running full-screen apps like games, only interrupting you if something critical happens like your PC being actively under attack.

The biggest gaming-related feature though, is the Game Optimizer. This allows Norton 360 for Gamers to intelligently allocate CPU resources to the game you’re playing in Windows to get better performance.

The caveat is that it doesn’t work with every game, but supports titles run via the Epic Games Store and Steam, plus game launchers from Bethesda, Blizzard, EA (Origin), Rockstar, and Ubisoft (Uplay). And bear in mind that you’ll need a quad-core CPU to use this feature, but most gamers these days will have one of those in their gaming PC.

Norton 360 for Gamers

(Image credit: NortonLifeLock)

How does Norton 360 for Gamers protect your device?

As we’ve seen, Norton 360 for Gamers delivers a whole raft of protection. From its core anti-malware measures (and specialized ransomware and web protection), through to security features like an intelligent firewall and integrated VPN.

That VPN can help defend against the likes of DDoS attacks aimed at gamers (or even the terrible practice of ‘swatting’, which is trying to call in a SWAT team or similar tactical response unit on false pretences), and the Dark Web Monitoring is a great extra to keep all your gaming accounts more secure.

Overall, Norton 360 for Gamers provides a commendable level of all-round protection and some nifty gaming-related extras for Windows users, particularly as Norton claims that its optimization feature can help some games run faster.

It’s well worth considering as a security package for those keen on gaming, with the main compromise compared to Norton 360 Deluxe being that Norton 360 for Gamers only supports three devices, rather than five. Both offerings are pitched at around the same price typically, and at the time of writing, Norton 360 for Gamers is a touch cheaper.

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What is Norton Family and what does it do?

Norton Family is a parental control suite from the respected antivirus vendor, which covers PCs and mobiles. It’s an in-depth product that seeks to ensure that your kids stay safe online.

But how does it do that, and exactly what features are included?

In this article, we’re going to provide a breakdown of the functionality included with Norton Family and what devices it supports, before discussing how good this suite is for parental control duties.

What is Norton Family?

Norton Family is a parental control suite that is designed to keep your children safe when they’re online – or offline for that matter (more on that later). It rather niftily provides protection for all your kids, no matter how many, with unlimited devices covered.

The kind of features offered here include monitoring to see what your offspring is up to online, the ability to restrict device usage to certain times, and of course defenses to keep kids from stumbling onto any nastiness while browsing the web.

Note that you also get this parental control package if you buy the more advanced security suites from this firm, namely Norton 360 Deluxe or Norton 360 Premium (in these suites it’s called Parental Control rather than Norton Family, but it’s the same thing).

Norton Family Desktop and Mobile App Interfaces

(Image credit: Norton)

What devices can I use Norton Family on?

Norton Family can be installed on unlimited devices, and supports not just Windows PCs, but also Android and iOS devices (the only thing you don’t get here is support for Macs, basically). Windows 10 (but not Windows 10 S Mode) and Windows 8 are supported – but not the Edge browser – and on mobile, you need to be running Android 6.0 or better, or if you have an Apple device, iOS 13 or newer.

Norton Family: what features does it have?

Want to know what this suite is capable of? Let’s look at some of the highlights of Norton Family’s feature set. Note that some abilities are only available on certain platforms – so app blocking, for instance, is just on Android – and we’ll flag this up wherever this is the case.

Web Supervision

A core element of any piece of parental control software, this lets you see where your kids are browsing on the web, and facilitates the blocking of inappropriate sites. It’s possible to block content over a whole host of diverse categories (not just the usual options relating to pornography, drugs and so forth).

Time Supervision

As the name suggests, this allows for setting time limits and managing when your kids can use their devices, blocking them off at bedtime or maybe meal times (or you can use ‘Instant Lock’ to temporarily, but instantly, block a device).

School Time

With home schooling perhaps still on your mind following lockdowns in some countries, this feature helps to manage remote learning on the child’s device, keeping them focused on work and not allowing any distractions by limiting web access strictly to educational content (which could be useful for homework time, too).

Search Supervision

This lets you monitor your child’s web searching activities to see if they’re looking for anything inappropriate. It also implements Norton’s Safe Search to filter out unsuitable search results. Furthermore, videos watched at YouTube are monitored and you can see a thumbnail and description to quickly let you judge whether a viewed clip might be anything potentially dodgy.

Norton Family Location Monitoring on a mobile phone

(Image credit: Norton)

Mobile App Supervision

With this feature you can see what apps your kids have downloaded, and block any that you feel are unsuitable. Note, however, this this is for Android devices only, so iOS users are left out here (that said, this isn’t Norton’s fault, as the reason is wrapped up in the way Apple implements its mobile OS with tight security measures).

Location Supervision

For parents worried about where their child might be not when online, but in the real world instead, Norton Family offers a full system of location tracking (and a 30-day history of where they’ve been) for both Android and iOS mobiles. Alert Me is a further feature tied in with this which delivers automatic alerts when a child reaches certain defined locations (school, home and so forth), with impressively in-depth options and controls for these functions.

Monthly/Weekly Reports

Some equally in-depth reports are provided on everything your kids have done, and these can be accessed from a well-organized web portal.

How good is Norton Family?

Norton has a good reputation within the security world and the Norton antivirus engine is consistently ranked highly by the independent test labs. That, of course, isn’t strictly relevant to the Norton Family product itself, but the pedigree of the developer is always a consideration and this is a quality parental control suite which blends power and convenience with some great filtering and location controls – our Norton Family review goes into more detail.

The asking price for Norton Family is more than reasonable given that it delivers support for an unlimited amount of devices, so no matter how big your family – and how much kit is owned therein – you’ll be covered with one subscription.

That’s an impressive value proposition, but the other consideration is whether you might want to plump for Norton 360 Deluxe instead, which includes the Parental Control module.

Now, Norton 360 Deluxe is a bit more expensive if you go by the recommended asking prices, but the internet security suite is invariably heavily discounted, and after price-cutting is generally only a little more expensive than Norton Family (if not the same price, at times). The trade-off is that only five devices are supported by Norton 360 Deluxe, but if that’s all you need, then you get a fully-fledged security suite with a whole host of extra features for not a lot more money.

It’s worth thinking about, certainly, but the bottom line is both these products offer good value, and feature-wise they compare favorably to rivals – very favorably in the case of Norton Family.

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