Symantec Corporation, maker of the popular suite of utilities to protect and repair computer systems, has announced open beta testing of its new program Norton Personal Firewall 2000.

Security software vendor Symantec is seeking beta testers for its 2007 line of products, including Norton AntiVirus, Internet Security and Norton Save & Restore. The company also has a number of new products in the pipeline, which will be provided to the Symantec Beta Testing Team.

Yahoo and Symantec announced a partnership on Tuesday that will promote the company's Internet security products to Yahoo's users. Several Yahoo services would be enhanced with online versions of Symantec products, including Yahoo Mail, Toolbar and HotJobs. Additionally a co-branded version of Norton Internet Security will be offered.

A faulty update sent to users of Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security prevented them from signing into America Online for several hours Wednesday. According to Symantec, the problem was traced to a part of the software that prevents attackers from accessing a computer through open ports.

Symantec is cleaning up a feature in Norton SystemWorks that uses a rootkit-like technique to hide a system folder from Windows. The technology works similar to Sony BMG's controversial rootkit DRM in the way it masks files and makes them invisible to the operating system.

Symantec, creator of the popular antivirus software Norton, purchased security firm Sygate earlier this week in a deal that will add to the software maker's already impressive line of acquisitions in the past year. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The first casualty from Symantec's acquisition of Sygate in August is official: Both the free and paid version of Sygate Personal Firewall have been axed due to an overlap with Norton Personal Firewall. Users will be given a discounted upgrade path to Symantec's product, which runs $37.49 USD.