Symantec

Microsoft to give away free antivirus software

Paul Mah — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:05:44 -0500

Microsoft plans to release free antivirus software code-named Morro. This new offering will be made available by the end of next year, and is slated to replace its embattled Windows Live OneCare product, which will be discontinued. In a nutshell, Morro will be a no-frills antivirus software that is able to run on minimal resources.

Such a move is certain to anger existing antivirus vendors, who already are unhappy over the paid-for Windows Live OneCare. Microsoft, however, claims that it merely intends to "remove barriers" that are stopping a sizeable percentage of consumers from installing antivirus applications. So is Microsoft is really concerned about stopping malware, or is it merely putting pressure on antivirus firms such as Symantec and McAfee?

Mary Landesman of web security company ScanSafe suggests that the reason might have more to do with Windows OneCare not generating significant returns in the first place. Pushing it to users' desktops like the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool however, would leverage on existing technologies developed by Microsoft to increase the company's insight into users' desktop. And, of course, there is no doubt that having even a basic antivirus utility on all Windows desktops will be beneficial in the fight against viruses and malware as a whole.

In this context, rolling out a fully functional free antivirus scanner makes sense.

For more on this story:
- check out this article from ZDNet News

U.S. military bans USB flash drives and removable media

Paul Mah — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:56:21 -0500

The United States military has banned the use of removable rewritable media as part of its strategy to "defend against attack and establish a baseline for information system protection." Examples of removable rewritable media would be USB-based flash drives, CDs and various types of memory cards. The ban underscores the growing prevalence of USB-based malware, which researchers at Symantec say have seen an upswing over the last year.

An e-mail from the head of U.S. Strategic Command shed more light on the rationale behind this ban. "It is apparent that over time, our posture to protect networks and associated information infrastructure has not kept pace with adversary efforts to penetrate, disrupt, interrupt, exploit or destroy critical elements of the GIG [Global Information Grid]."

Wes Miller senior technical product manager at privately-held security solutions company CoreTrace disagrees that such a ban will solve the problem in the long run. In a prepared statement, Miller noted that, "Banning flash drives and other types of media or memory devices is simply a case of 'stopping the symptom,' but does not actually cure the disease. What's more concerning is that the US military machine is now at the mercy of a piece of executable code, and that traditional anti-malware products (which the DOD has plenty of) are doing nothing to actually stop the problem."

Whatever the case, this problem is not one that will go away soon. Certainly, USB-based malware will be with us for some time yet. One possible action would be to disable the AutoRun functionality for removable media. Moving ahead, companies can also set policies to stop USB storage devices from being accessed.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article at Wired Blog
- check out this article at eWeek

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U.S. Federal Government news from FierceCIO

Firewall? What firewall?

Judi Hasson — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:46:25 -0400

Most American computer users think they are protected from invasion by intruders, but the reality is quite different. A survey of 3,000 Americans by the National Cybersecurity Alliance found that 81 percent claimed to have installed a firewall, but manual scans of computers showed that only 58 percent actually had the software installed, enabled and up-to-date. In addition, 75 percent thought they had anti-spam software installed, but only 42 actually had updated versions.

The survey also found that nearly 50 percent didn't know how to determine whether a website was safe, and the same percentage had difficulty separating high- from low-risk websites in search results.

Adam Rak, senior director of public affairs at security software vendor Symantec, told nextgov.com that it is essential to bringing people up to speed about the latest threats. "We have to beat the drum. We're never going to solve the problem of [cyber threats], but we can reduce the risk," he said.

For more on the importance of firewalls:
- check out this nextgov.com article

Taking security to the clouds

Judi Hasson — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:51:39 -0400

Major cybersecurity vendors have, in recent months, released software that seeks to identify viruses, Trojans and various forms of malware on severs connected to the Internet rather than wait until they infect the desktop PC. Forbes.com reports that F-Secure, McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro have moved into this new territory, hoping to protect their customers' machines by performing more analysis as a networked service.

This cloud-based approach, they hope, will be a more effective strategy for blocking new malicious code. This move comes has more and more desktop machines are being infected by malicious software. The cloud-based solution is designed to more quickly block the bad actors, and do so across a broader spectrum as opposed to waiting for individual databases of newly identified malware signatures to be downloaded to a PC.

For more on cloud-based solutions
- check out this forbes.com article

Survey finds virtual server backups prone to failure

Paul Mah — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:36:56 -0400

If the findings from a survey conducted by Symantec at the recent VMworld conference in Las Vegas are to be believed, then data backups in virtualized environments are often ineffective and inefficient. The conclusion was formed by surveying a total of 127 randomly selected attendees who reported success rates of less than 60 percent when it comes to dealing with virtual machines. Indeed, about 41 percent use at least two backup products for physical and virtual servers. Still, the fact that the research was commissioned by Symantec to highlight the capabilities of its Backup Exec product line should come across as suspicious. What are your experiences in backing-up virtual machines?

To find out more about this story:
- check out this Network World Asia article

Symantec: Watch out for new Word attacks

Judi Hasson — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:50:37 -0400

There's yet another potential headache for all those tethered to Microsoft, the ever-present software giant that seems to have a hard time getting things right. This time it's the Word software, according to an advisory from Symantec Corp. The security firm reported that hackers have been exploiting "what is possibly an undisclosed vulnerability affecting Microsoft Word." Few details were released on the attack. "Initial analysis suggests that some Microsoft Office versions, even when fully patched, are affected by this exploit," Symantec said in a statement. This is just the latest in a string of flaws found in Microsoft's Office software, including Word, over the past few years. Symantec said its antivirus software is detecting the attack, but the security company has recommended that users avoid opening unsolicited Word documents.

For more on Word problems:
- see this Computerworld.com article

Symantec buys into online storage

Paul Mah — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:11:11 -0400

Symantec has quietly paid an estimated $123 million for privately-held online storage firm SwapDrive. The size of this deal eclipsed the $75 million that storage giant EMC paid for rival Mozy last September. Neither company issued a press release, but Symantec has grudgingly confirmed that the deal closed on June 6.

According to TechCrunch, SwapDrive is adding 13,000 new customers a day, with services sold by more than 60 partners, including luminaries such as Iomega, Dell, Intuit and even Best Buy. A Symantec spokesperson says that this acquisition is purely a move to get into the consumer online backup market. It's apparent that Symantec is feeling the heat too quickly to boast its footprint in this important niche.

For more on the acquisition of SwapDrive by Symantec:
- check out this The Register article

The 10 most annoying habits of tech firms

Thu, 29 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

PC World conducted an informal survey of its readers to find the most annoying practices and policies of technology companies. The results included complaints about the software sunset policies of Intuit and Microsoft; rebate run arounds from Buy.com and Office Depot; the practice by Gateway, HP and Sony of "stuffing new systems with trialware, adware, junkware'' and other marketing gimmicks; and the decisions by Intuit, McAfee and Symantec to include software that "nags you to buy or upgrade.''

To read the entire list:
- check out this InfoWorld.com article

For more tech stories from the Fierce CIO network:
> Cisco leans toward open source. Article
> SAP and Oracle unlikely to settle out-of-court. Article
> Solar power for your mobile gadget. Article

Check out storage resource management

Mon, 19 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

When economic times were good and IT departments found themselves short on storage capacity, the solution was simple--throw more money and capacity at the problem.

Today there is an expensive storage hangover in the works, especially with power cost growing and a need to find new storage resource management solutions. InformationWeek asked for advice from SRM software vendors on how best monitor storage system and interconnect status; automate routine configuration tasks; and facilitate movement of data across the storage infrastructure.

They received responses from BridgeHead Software in California, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Network Appliance, Northern, Symantec, and Tek-Tools Software, along with newcomer Olocity.

To read what they had to say:
- check out this informationweek.com article

For more stories from the FierceCIO network:
> Dell pledges to be more energy efficient. Article
> HP works to fix Windows XP SP3. Article
> Opera Mini 4.1 released. Article

Spam turns 30

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:59 -0400

Spam, the bane of every office and personal email system, celebrated its 30th birthday on May 3 and as every CIO knows, age hasn't stopped the scourge from remaining ubiquitous. Microsoft founder Bill Gates predicted in 2004 that the spam problem would be solved in two years. But Sophos, an email security company, says that 95 percent of all email today is spam, while Symantec says that figure is more like 80 percent to 85 percent. Due to sophisticated solutions, email service providers and the hard work of IT managers, end users only see a fraction of what's out there. But the spammers are an industrious lot, constantly presenting new security risks to company systems and offering an unrelenting array of solicitations for unwary victims. Princeton computer science professor Ed Felten says "there is more spam than ever and no end is in sight."

For more on spam's significant birthday:
- See this InformationWeek article