Symantec has been ­listening to its users, and this year the company ­delivers a slimmed-down and faster Norton AntiVirus 2009.

Whitelisting is included, and by marrying it with Insight, Symantec makes it more suited for the user than ­competitors. This feature identifies “trusted” files and applications, and doesn’t waste time rescanning them unless they have been changed. Not all “safe files” make it onto the whitelist, and for those Norton uses ­Insight, a community process, by utilising the logic that if thousands of other people are using a suspicious file, chances are it is not a new piece of malicious ­software but rather a new ­application thereof.

The awful LiveUpdate ­feature has been replaced with a process of providing anti-malware definition ­signatures every few minutes. Users also now have free telephone support, but Symantec still doesn't provide enough of a knowledge base. In general though NIS 2009 hits all the right notes and its technologies provide award-winning protection. R500 for a 3-user license.