94 Macworld • October 2019BUYING GUIDEfrom year two onwards you’ll move to the standard
subscription fee of £49.99.Malware detection
Following an easy installation, we ran our usual
battery of unscientific tests that we hope indicate
how well Norton 360 performs relative to other
anti‑malware apps. The first was to perform a full
system scan on our test MacBook Pro, with its
i7 2.8GHz processor, 16GB of RAM, and around
400GB of files.
The scan completed in just 35 minutes, which
makes Norton 360 one of the fastest anti‑malware
scanners that we’ve seen. CPU usage throughout
was around 50 ‑80 percent of four of the CPU cores
in our Mac, so we were paying a price for that speed
and the fans became noisy.
A second full system scan later took the same
amount of time to complete, and it looks like Norton
360 doesn’t include the functionality to know which
files haven’t changed, and that therefore don’t need
scanning afresh – a trick other anti‑malware apps
use to speed‑up subsequent scans.
Next, we switched to our virtualized macOS
installation to test how Norton 360 coped when we
introduced 26 recent Mac malware samples onto
the computer. The result was a 100 percent clean‑
up rate. Only a handful of the anti‑malware apps
we’ve looked at got a similar top score.
The malware was detected near‑instantly, with a
relatively informative pop‑up notification appearing
telling us where and when the malware appeared.94 Macworld • October 2019
BUYING GUIDE
from year two onwards you’ll move to the standard
subscription fee of £49.99.Malware detection
Following an easy installation, we ran our usual
battery of unscientific tests that we hope indicate
howwellNorton 360 performsrelativetoother
anti‑malware apps. The first was to perform a full
system scan on our test MacBook Pro, with its
i7 2.8GHz processor, 16GB of RAM, and around
400GB of files.
Thescancompletedinjust 35 minutes,which
makesNorton 360 oneofthefastestanti‑malware
scannersthatwe’veseen.CPUusagethroughout
wasaround 50 ‑80 percent of four of the CPU cores
in our Mac, so we were paying a price for that speed
and the fans became noisy.
A second full system scan later took the same
amount of time to complete, and it looks like Norton
360 doesn’t include the functionality to know which
fileshaven’tchanged,andthatthereforedon’tneed
scanningafresh– a trickotheranti‑malwareapps
usetospeed‑up subsequent scans.
Next, we switched to our virtualized macOS
installation to test how Norton 360 coped when we
introduced 26 recent Mac malware samples onto
thecomputer.Theresultwasa 100percentclean‑
uprate.Onlya handfuloftheanti‑malware apps
we’velookedatgota similartopscore.
Themalwarewasdetectednear‑instantly,witha
relativelyinformativepop‑up notification appearing
telling us where and when the malware appeared.