Symantec Sucks: Phishing Protection and the 'Fix Now' nag

2008-02-19

Phishing Protection and the 'Fix Now' nag

Okay - look. I don't need Phishing Protection. Simply not required. And I don't like the extra delay that it imposes when surfing. And I'm sure if I want anyone to have a complete list of every URL we ever visit. For these reasons, I'm not the slightest bit interested in enabling Phishing protection. It's all useless with no benefit.

I've not found any setting to get Norton Internet Security 07 to shut-up the stupid 'FIX NOW' and red '!' nag about how my Phishing Protection should be enabled. All that their steadfast but stupid approach accomplishes is to make their task bar icon less than useful. It is now dedicated to being permanently red '!' and I have to try to ignore it. This means that if there actually was serious security breach, I wouldn't know.

It is as if they have a Vice President of Product Development (or similar powerful position) that is a complete moron. There are so many consistent bad decisions on display that it can only be evidence of a moron in charge - a single point of failure.

FIX NOW!!! Argh...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: I had the same problem with the annoying red exclamation mark but it was because I chose to be notified when Windows Update has updates instead of automatically downloading them; evidently Symantec thinks that's a security faux pas. And I run as non-admin in Windows XP so each time I log in and out the message pops up that I have a security problem. And whomever designed NIS for a non-admin Windows user should get canned - most settings I cannot even view (though I can edit the Windows registry). It's not a problem now as I got rid of it last week and now run a free AVG / ZoneAlarm / Spybot / AdAware stack.

And it gets better: Symantec has already moved most of its support to India and pretty much destroyed it. 6 months ago at Symantec HQ I interviewed for a job in Beijing to train their product developers on secure development practices, and the manager told me I was too experienced, they didn't have the budget to hire me, and they were looking for somebody more junior! Brace yourself, Symantec users!!!; March 1, 2008 at 12:36 PM
Anonymous said...: I've turned off the three optional warnings listed under 'Options', including the one about automatic Windows updates. But there is no similar option to shut down Phishing protection status warnings.; March 2, 2008 at 12:52 PM

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Symantec fanboy OkiNava wrote:

"For EVERY blog posting that SSBC posts there will be response from this blog."

In other words, he seemed to be very upset that I dared to criticize his favorite software company. So he promised the world that for "EVERY" post made here, he was going to post a rebuttal on his blog.

He posted three (3) rebuttals. Three.

That leaves about 125 rebuttals to go. LOL.

Perhaps he stumbled across some of the 'priceless' screen captures of blatent bugs and stupid errors and realized that there isn't really any rebuttal to that sort of documentary evidence.

OkiNava has another blog called "Norton Rocks". Almost rhymes with Northern Rock, a failed bank in the UK. Or perhaps he spelled "...Sucks" wrong.

Face facts. Norton Internet Security 2007 edition was indefensibly bad. There's nothing to argue about. NIS 2008 was not much better. One might as well try to claim that Cambodian dictator Pol Pot "was simply misunderstood."

For every action there is a reaction. Symantec screwed up big time with NIS 2007. This blog is a direct consequence of their terrible mistakes and incompetence.

Since they've never explicitly admitted that they sold horrible software and wasted the time of many people, then this blog will remain a semi-permanent record of their utter failings.

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