Symantec Corporation (Nasdaq:SYMC) today announced that Norton AntiVirus 2000 received PC World's 2000 World Class Award for best anti-virus See antivirus program. software. The World Class Award winners were announced at an awards ceremony at PC Expo and will be included in the July 2000 issue of PC World.

"As the leading anti-virus software, we are honored that PC World's editors, testers, and contributors have chosen Norton AntiVirus 2000 as its World Class Award winner," said Steve Cullen, senior vice president of the Consumer Products Division at Symantec. "PC World is recognized as the premier source for computer product quality among the influencers and opinions leaders in business management."

Symantec's Norton AntiVirus A popular antivirus program from Symantec. The AntiVirus function is available as a separate product for home and business users or as part of various packages that contain other utilities such as Norton SystemWorks and Norton Internet Security. See Norton Utilities. 2000 for Windows 95/98/2000/NT automatically protects users against viruses, malicious ActiveX controls and Java applets, as well as other dangerous codes. It protects against infection at all virus entry points, including the Internet, floppy disks, CDs, or a network. It also automatically scans incoming attachments in the most popular email programs. Norton AntiVirus is extremely easy to keep updated with scheduling capabilities that allow new anti-virus definitions from Symantec to be downloaded as often as once a week.

The PC World Class Award designation is among several awards Norton AntiVirus has earned this year. In February, Norton AntiVirus earned PC World's prestigious Best Buy for the third straight year. In May it earned PC Magazine Editors' Choice. The product has also been on PC Data's Top 10 Business Software list since January 1998.

Celebrating its 18th year, the respected World Class Awards honor the top hardware, software, and Web products in the computer industry. To select the best of the best, PC World's editors, testers, and contributors examined the entire gamut of products that have appeared in the magazine over the past year. Hundreds of products in 66 categories were judged on performance, value, consistency, and innovation. The magazine also polled its readers to name the finest companies for PC and software support, the top direct PC See DirecPC. vendor, as well as the best online/mail-order catalog.

"The World Class Award winners represent an all-star line-up of the year's best products," said Kevin McKean, editorial director of PC World. "Throughout the year, the editors scout outstanding players in hardware and software for our readers. These awards honor the finest the industry has to offer -- from solid veterans to stand-out rookies."