Taking a more holistic approach to online safety and security, Norton 360 Platinum lets you know when hackers pick your pocket.
There was a time when paid antivirus software simply had one job: to scan your computer for nasty viruses and neutralise them before they could wreak havoc. Eventually, Windows’ security issues became so dire that Microsoft was forced to include free “Windows Defender” antivirus tools with every copy of Windows.
Rather than compete head-to-head with Microsoft’s free alternative, third-party antivirus software makers like Norton realised that – to stay in business – they needed to go far above and beyond what was covered by Windows Defender.
Ever since, security suites have continued to expand the ways in which they protect you from all kinds of online threats. Rather than just block exploits, Norton 360 Platinum also lets you know if someone is stealing your money or your identity.
Table of contents
- Features
- Specifications and price
- Norton 360 Platinum in action
- Financial monitoring
- Who is Norton 360 Platinum for?
Norton 360 Platinum features
Norton 360 Platinum is a one-year subscription protecting up to five Windows, macOS, Android and iOS devices. The key new feature is Financial Monitoring, which alerts you to suspicious charges on your credit cards and bank accounts.
Norton’s addition of Financial Monitoring is a smart, multi-layered approach to security. Rather than just trying to stop hackers from accessing your funds using malicious software, it also helps limit the damage if a hacker does get through your defences.
As part of the Financial Monitoring service, Norton includes 12 months’ access to Equifax Credit Protect for monitoring your credit rating.
Along with Financial Monitoring, Norton includes Dark Web Monitoring, which warns you if your personal information is available for sale in the darkest corners of the internet, such as your email address, credit card number and driver’s licence.
Alongside monitoring services, Norton 360 Platinum offers a wide range of other tools designed to thwart hackers, as well as help you recover from successful attacks.
Naturally, you’ve got Device Security, which offers real-time protection against threats like viruses, spyware, malware and ransomware. This includes watching for unsafe websites as well as scam emails and text messages. Plus, there are Parental Controls and SafeCam for PC, the latter of which blocks attempts to access your webcam.
When it comes to device security, Norton also includes a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which helps keep your online activities safe from prying eyes when using Wi-Fi away from home.
There’s also a Password Manager to help you create and store strong passwords, along with PC Cloud Backup, which stores important files online to safeguard them against hard drive failures, stolen devices and ransomware.
Meanwhile, Social Media Monitoring checks your accounts for account takeovers, risky activity and inappropriate content. It’s important to note that it doesn’t include monitoring of chats or direct messages, so it’s not designed to specifically identify issues like cyberbullying, explicit/illegal content or hate speech.
Finally, Norton 360 Platinum includes Identity Restoration Support. Should you fall victim to identity theft, a dedicated identity restoration specialist will work with you step-by-step, providing advice and support.
Norton 360 Platinum specifications and price
| Devices supported | Windows macOS iOS Android |
| Devices covered | Five |
| Price | $139 for 12 months via Bing Lee |
| Official website | Norton Australia |
Norton 360 Platinum in action
Installing Norton 360 Platinum is pretty straightforward. The days of installer discs are long gone. Instead, you’re provided with a product key that you enter into the Norton website – which requires creating a Norton account.
The desktop versions are compatible all the way back to Windows 7 and macOS 10.13 High Sierra. The mobile versions run on Android 10.0 or later, as well as iPhones or iPads running the current or previous two versions of Apple iOS.
Thankfully, Windows support includes devices running on either x86/Intel processors or AMD Snapdragon/ARM chips used in some Windows devices such as “Copilot+ PCs” (which can’t run all Windows applications). It’s important to read the fine print because a few Norton features are missing on macOS and Windows ARM computers.
On installation, Norton 360 Platinum immediately scans your device and network for potential vulnerabilities. It then schedules a weekly scan, with the option to change the timing and frequency.
Running on a fresh installation of Windows 11, the initial scan found no malware threats or network issues, but threw up a red exclamation mark to flag “Advanced issues”. If you’re familiar with Norton, you can guess where this is going.
Clicking “Advanced issues” revealed that a massive 1,451 issues were slowing down my PC, from resource-hogging apps to broken registry keys and 5GB of junk files. Remember, this is on a completely fresh Windows 11 installation.
Click ‘Continue’ (the only button) and Norton tries to sell you its Norton Utilities Ultimate software to make these scary-sounding things go away, even though they’re not an actual threat to your security.
Again, there’s only a big yellow ‘Continue’ button in sight to pay for Norton Utilities Ultimate although, if you scroll down, you’ll discover ‘Not Interested’ in small print. Click ‘Not Interested’, or kill the window, and it still tries to get you to agree to a free trial, after which you’re automatically billed unless you remember to unsubscribe.
Such scareware tactics come into play a few times whenever Norton sees an opportunity to encourage you to pay for extra software to cover things that aren’t included in your subscription. It’s banking on the fact that non-tech-savvy users will hand over their money just to be on the safe side.
To be fair, Norton’s not the only security vendor to use such tactics – an example of sales techniques the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) describes as “dark patterns” – but hopefully the irony of using scare tactics to sell extra software isn’t lost on Norton as it tries to protect users from being scammed.
Norton 360 Platinum financial monitoring
Considering that most features of Norton 360 Platinum are old hat, it’s worth focusing on the new Financial Monitoring options.
You can’t actually set up Financial Monitoring from within the Norton 360 Platinum app. Instead, you need to use a browser to log into your My Norton account, where it’s somewhat hidden away under My Protection.
Here you can also enter your various details to enable social media and dark web monitoring.
Unfortunately, you can only take advantage of Norton’s Financial Monitoring if your bank is supported. Australia’s big four banks are covered, along with some smaller banks and a few superannuation providers.
To be fair, if your bank is not included, it’s probably not Norton’s fault. The Financial Monitoring features rely on your bank supporting the Federal government’s Consumer Data Right service, also known as “open banking”, which is designed to make it easier for Australians to securely link their banking to third-party services.
After choosing a bank, you need to select a sharing period of 90, 180 or 365 days and then specify if you want to grant Norton the ability to monitor both your account details and your transaction details.
At this point, you’re taken to your bank’s CDR login page, where you enter your customer number. Rather than asking for your online banking password, the bank texts a one-time code to your mobile phone. Enter the code, and you can select the accounts you want Norton to access.
This approach is a lot more secure than handing over your online banking password to a third party like Norton, which is a major security risk and would probably break your bank’s terms and conditions.
By using CDR, Norton only has read-only access to your accounts, which means it can’t move money around, but it is enough for Norton to see what’s happening and alert you to suspicious transactions.
To reduce false alarms, you can set separate amount thresholds for cash withdrawals, purchases and transfers. They’re each set to flag transactions over $500 by default, but can go as low as $100 or as high as $25,000. Remember, Norton can’t actually block suspicious transactions, but it gives you a quick heads up so you can immediately contact your bank.
Who is Norton 360 Platinum for?
Norton 360 Platinum tackles security from just about every angle, making it a good choice for those people looking for the simplicity of all-in-one protection. Especially when desktop and mobile protection is rolled into one subscription.
Financial Monitoring is a great practical addition, especially for people who don’t check their bank accounts every day. The sooner you report a suspicious transaction to your bank, the greater the chance you have of stopping it.
Unfortunately, non-tech-savvy users looking for simplicity are also more likely to fall for Norton’s dodgy tactics for selling extra software to address “advanced issues” that aren’t actually threats.
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