The three top contenders in the market are Symantec's Norton AntiVirus, Command Software's Command AntiVirus, and Network Associates' McAfee Active Virus Defense. All three have active updates, with the possibility for pulling the updates from corporate home sites, and receiving updates for the latest profiles. The true difference lies in what Network Associates is doing in the application suite for Active Virus Defense. Their combination technology now looks for active content in addition to viruses. Browser Attacks With the advent of the Web, threats moved from viruses in attachments and shareware programs to browser-based attacks, specifically in the active content space.
Active content is a fairly new term with various definitions.
For clarity's sake, the definition used here refers to any information transmitted to your computer over a network connection that, by itself, modifies the behavior of your computer. Common examples include Java applets, ActiveX controls, and plug-ins. The design is simple. The program monitors such things as ActiveX controls and only lets them operate in a closed environment. Users can manage the system resources that the active content has access to, like which files are allowed to be stored on the local hard disk and what personal information may be sent to which Web and FTP sites.