Why the vocabulary is the problem
Someone comparing two security products is rarely comparing two things they can see. Both boxes say real-time protection. Both say advanced threat defence. Both mention a firewall, a scanner and something about the cloud. The words are doing the work of a specification, and most of them have no agreed definition behind them — some are precise technical terms borrowed from research, some are marketing coinages three years old, and a few mean genuinely different things depending on who printed them.
This reference takes those words apart. Each entry says what the term means, what it is often confused with, and — where the honest answer is that a phrase carries no fixed meaning — says that too. Definitions are more durable than product comparisons: a feature list goes stale in a season, but the meaning of heuristic detection has not moved in a decade, and someone who understands it can read any product page for themselves, including product pages this site has never covered.
The approach has a second benefit that matters in Australia specifically. The Australian Consumer Law makes misleading conduct in trade unlawful, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission publishes guidance on how that applies to advertising claims. A reader who can tell a defined term from an undefined one is better placed to notice when a claim has been written to sound like a measurement and is not one.
Eight terms that cause most of the trouble
These come up in nearly every question this site receives. Each links to its full entry in the glossary.
Signature
A stored pattern that identifies one known piece of malicious code. Fast and exact, and useless against anything not yet in the list.
Heuristic detection
Judging a file by its structure and characteristics rather than by matching it to a known sample. Catches variants; produces false positives.
Zero-day
A flaw for which no fix has been released. A precise term with a specific meaning, used loosely in marketing to mean "new".
False positive
A clean file flagged as malicious. The cost of aggressive detection, and the reason detection rates are never quoted alone by serious testers.
Potentially unwanted program
Software that is not malicious but that most people would not have installed knowingly. A judgement call, and vendors make it differently.
Seat
One device covered by a licence. The number that determines whether a subscription actually covers the household it was bought for.
Real-time protection
Inspection that happens as files are opened or written, rather than during a scheduled scan. Near-universal now, and rarely a differentiator.
Automatic renewal
A subscription that charges again at the end of a term unless cancelled. The single most common source of complaints in this category.
The six sections of this reference
The glossary
The core of the site: around forty terms, cross-linked, each with the confusion it usually causes noted underneath.
How detection works
The four mechanisms behind every scanner, followed end to end through one file, with the trade-offs each one carries.
Malware types
Virus, worm, trojan, ransomware, spyware, adware — what actually separates them, and why the categories overlap.
Choosing a product
The questions worth asking before paying for anything, including what the operating system already provides.
Licences and subscriptions
Seats, terms, renewal and refunds, alongside the consumer guarantees that apply to software bought in Australia.
Reporting and recourse
Which Australian body handles which problem, and what each of them can actually do once contacted.
Reading one product listing closely
Norton AntiVirus Plus is the product this site has a commercial arrangement with, and it serves as the worked example throughout the reference. The information available here comes from the affiliate network's own listing, which is short. It gives the product name, places it in the antivirus category, and states the platforms it covers: mobile devices running Android, iOS and Windows; desktop computers running Mac, Windows and Linux; and tablets running iOS, Android and Windows. Payment to the publisher is triggered by a completed sale.
That is the whole of it. The listing does not state which detection methods the product uses, how many devices one subscription covers, what it costs in Australian dollars, what the renewal terms are, or whether any of the platforms listed receive the same feature set. Those are exactly the questions the rest of this site teaches you to ask, and the only place to get current answers to them is the vendor. The product notes page sets out the listing in full, separates it from what remains unstated, and gives the checks worth running on the vendor's own pages before buying.
Visit the Norton AntiVirus Plus website
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Australian bodies that publish on this subject
Several Australian government bodies publish guidance in this area directly, at no cost and without advertising. Where a question on this site touches something one of them covers, the entry links to them rather than paraphrasing:
- The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes practical advice for individuals and small business, and operates ReportCyber for reporting cybercrime.
- Scamwatch, run by the National Anti-Scam Centre, collects scam reports and publishes what current scams look like — including the fake technical support calls that trade on antivirus branding.
- The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner regulates privacy under the Privacy Act 1988 and handles complaints about the handling of personal information.
- The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission administers the Australian Consumer Law, including the consumer guarantees that apply to software sold here.
- The eSafety Commissioner covers online safety, image-based abuse and the safety of children online.
What this reference does not do
It does not rank products, score them, or declare anything best. It covers one commercial product in detail, and says so at every point where that product appears — a site with one advertiser is in no position to present a ranking as independent.
It does not scan anything, check anything about the device you are reading on, or claim to know your situation. Nothing here is a diagnosis. It does not publish test results, because it runs no tests; where independent laboratory testing is relevant, the reference points to the organisations that publish their own methodology and leaves you to read their results directly.
It is not security advice for a specific situation, and it is not legal advice. For a business with obligations under the Privacy Act, or anyone dealing with an active incident, the ACSC guidance above and professional help are the right starting points.
How entries are written
Every glossary entry is written to stand on its own: definition first, then the distinction that the term is usually confused with, then a worked example where one helps. Where a term is contested or vendor-specific, the entry says so instead of picking a side. Where a factual claim depends on a source — a regulator's position, a legal requirement — the entry links to the body that published it, and where no such source exists the point is phrased as general guidance rather than dressed up as fact. Product-specific statements about Norton AntiVirus Plus are limited to what the affiliate listing states, which is why the product notes page is as much about gaps as about content. The about page sets out the method and its commercial limits in full.
Where to start
If you are trying to understand something you read on a product page, start with the glossary and search it for the phrase. If you are trying to decide whether to pay for anything at all, the choosing page begins with what your operating system already includes. If you have already bought something and the problem is billing, renewal or a refund, go to licences and subscriptions. If you think you have been targeted by a scam, the reporting page names the right body for each type of problem.