Just in time for National Cyber Security Awareness Month, Symantec has continued their support of TechSoup and our mission with their updated donations of Norton AntiVirus 2011 and Norton Internet Security 2011 to eligible nonprofits and libraries.

Continuing their tradition of simple-to-use yet effective online protection, Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security ensure that your workstations are protected from major threats like viruses, spyware, and Trojan horses, but do so using as small of a memory and resource footprint as possible. It also protects users from scareware by checking downloaded files' "reputations" against a real-time global online database. What's the difference between the two?

Here's a quick breakdown:

  Norton AntivirusNorton Internet Security
Computer ProtectionInsight Protection  
Antivirus  
Antispyware  
SONAR Protection  
Network ProtectionIntrusion Prevention  
Email Protection  
Browser Protection  
Web ProtectionDownload Intelligence  
Identify Safe  
Smart Firewall  
Safe Surfing  

While both products will protect you from prominent threats and attacks, Norton Internet Security adds another layer of protection during browsing sessions, for example, that protects users when they enter data into websites, or disallows that altogether for suspicious sites. This extra layer may be helpful if you have public computing workstations; while an employee is unlikely to click on a link from an email about their bank balance, a library patron may not be as vigilant.

For a more detailed comparison between these two products and also Norton 360 version 4.0, see the comparison chart on Symantec's Norton page. If you want to learn more about basic online security, click here to view our recorded webinar with Marian Merritt, Internet Safety Advocate from Symantec, moderated by Kami Griffiths from TechSoup.

Kevin Lo | Senior Program Manager, NetSquared.org | a part of TechSoup Global