beta for Symantec’s Norton AntiVirus 2010 and Norton Internet Security 2010 is now available for download.

Symantec is touting this new version as a paradigm shift from traditional security methodology used by the industry.

“At the top of the usual signature-based antimalware protection, we now use a type of” profile “which is known as a sonar 2 methodology,” said David Hall, Symantec’s consumer product marketing manager for Asia Pacific.

“This allows us to detect never-before-seen threats by utilizing our Norton protection and intelligence casting a suspicious eye on the file based on that derived from the user, then the belief of the origin site, and so forth.”

Hall went to say that, although new features and changes in the thinking behind the new version, the performance has not been affected.

“We still believe that we offer the best protection with the least amount of impact on performance, which is our main goal for Norton AntiVirus and Internet Security 2009″ he said.

The new version is also designed to be more user-friendly with easy to read warnings, reports and dashboard gauges, according to the company.

Because akan released in autumn this year, both Norton AntiVirus 2010 and Norton Internet Security 2010 will be fully compatible with the upcoming Microsoft Windows 7 operating system