Computerworld Symantec News

Avira antivirus upgrade wreaks 'catastrophic' havoc on Windows PCs

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:54:00 GMT

German security firm Avira yesterday issued a service pack for its antivirus software that crippled an unknown number of Windows machines, with one customer calling the gaffe "catastrophic" to his company.

Cloud, BYOD Increases Need for Automated IAM Systems

(Thor Olavsrud) — Sat, 12 May 2012 13:25:00 GMT

As traditional security concepts of perimeter and end-point defense break down as a result of the proliferation of cloud services and the BYOD phenomenon, enterprises are increasingly feeling the need for greater control over access to applications. That's where automated identity and access management comes in.

3LM, Symantec and Wyse aim to simplify mobile device management

(Mikael RicknA$?s) — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:18:00 GMT

At three different events in three different U.S. cities 3LM, Symantec and Wyse Technology are all showing upgraded or new products to help IT staff better cope with the smartphones, tablets and other devices users are allowed to bring to work.

Symantec conference puts focus on mobile security

(Ellen Messmer) — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:31:00 GMT

At its annual Symantec Vision conference attended by enterprise customers and business partners, Symantec laid out its management and security product strategy for mobile endpoint devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Google Android devices.

Android malware used to mask online fraud, says expert

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:08:00 GMT

Android malware being automatically distributed from hacked websites looks like it's being used to mask online purchases, and could be part of a fraud gang's new push into mobile, researchers said today.

Flashback botnet not shrinking, huge numbers of Macs still infected

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:14:00 GMT

Contrary to reports by several security companies, the Flashback botnet is not shrinking, the Russian antivirus firm that first reported the massive infection three weeks ago claimed today.

Mozilla blocks Java in Firefox for some Mac users

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:53:00 GMT

Mozilla this week began blocking outdated versions of a Java plug-in in Firefox for some Mac users after calling the threat posed by the Flashback malware "evident and imminent."

Apple delivers Flashback malware hunter-killer

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:49:00 GMT

Two days after Apple promised to decontaminate Macs infested with the Flashback malware, on Thursday the company delivered.

QuickPoll: How does the Flashback botnet infection affect Apple's reputation for security?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:33:00 GMT

More than 600,000 Macs have been infected with a new version of the Flashback Trojan horse that's being installed on people's computers with the help of Java exploits. How does this infection affect Apple's reputation for security?

Flashback Mac botnet shrinks, says Symantec

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:32:00 GMT

The number of Macs infected with the Flashback malware has plummeted in the last few days, antivirus vendor Symantec said today.

Mac security software sales jump after Flashback infections make news

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:40:00 GMT

Sales of Mac security software have jumped since the news broke last week about a massive malware infection of Apple computers, according to application statistics and some antivirus vendors.

Security experts: 600,000+ estimate of Mac botnet likely on target

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:05:00 GMT

Security experts could not confirm claims by a little-known Russian antivirus company that more than 600,000 Macs have been infected with a zero-day-exploiting Trojan, but they said the number was within reason.

Dell says AppAssure now its premier backup product

lmearian@computerworld.com (Lucas Mearian) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:31:00 GMT

Dell's first in a flurry of software acquisitions was backup vendor AppAssure, which Dell said will be its primary data protection application even as it still resells Symantec and CommVault products.

Do-it-yourself plan to take down Sality botnet outlined on public mailing list

(Lucian Constantin) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:25:00 GMT

A method that anyone can use to hijack a massive multipurpose botnet called Sality was described in detail on a public mailing list on Tuesday.

Duqu malware resurfaces after four-month holiday

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:06:00 GMT

Duqu, the malware that has been compared to 2010's notorious Stuxnet, is back, security researchers said today.

Digitally signed malware is increasingly prevalent, researchers say

(Lucian Constantin) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:01:00 GMT

Security companies have recently identified multiple malware threats that use stolen digital certificates to sign their components in an attempt to avoid detection and bypass Windows defenses.

Storage software sales hit all-time record highs

lmearian@computerworld.com (Lucas Mearian) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:23:00 GMT

The sales of storage software in 2011 produced record revenues of more than $14 billion, IDC said.

Anonymous defaces police equipment supplier site, releases Symantec code

jvijayan@computerworld.com (Jaikumar Vijayan) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:50:00 GMT

For the second time this week, hackers associated with the Anonymous hacking collective have taken down a website in retaliation for the arrests of several of their prominent members.

Is it really Zeus vs. Anonymous?

(Taylor Armerding) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:35:00 GMT

Were Anonymous supporters really duped into installing the Zeus botnet that steals their confidential information, including email login information, banking user names and passwords? Symantec says yes.

RSA Conference 2012 post-mortem: IT security in a "precarious spot"

(George V. Hulme) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:11:00 GMT

One lesson of RSA Conference 2012 is that we are neither winning or losing the security battle. So where do we go from here?

Hacker on hacker: Zeus bot master dupes Anonymous backers into installing password stealer

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:11:00 GMT

Hackers have duped supporters of the Anonymous group into installing the Zeus botnet, which steals confidential information from PCs, including banking usernames and passwords, security researchers said last week.

RSA Conference: Symantec inaugurates O3 cloud-based single sign-on service

(Ellen Messmer) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:23:00 GMT

At the RSA Conference Tuesday, Symantec announced general availability of its O3 cloud-based single sign-on (SSO) and authentication service, which adheres to a concept company CEO Enrique Salem outlined exactly a year ago at RSA 2011. Symantec also provided detail on future capabilities the O3 cloud service will have for data-loss prevention and encryption.

Intel announces Cloud SSO beta program

(Ellen Messmer) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:20:00 GMT

Intel today announced the availability of a cloud-based single sign-on (SSO) authentication and authorization service under a beta program that is expected to become a generally available offering later this spring.

SAP, Symantec upgrade mobile device tools

mhamblen@computerworld.com (Matt Hamblen) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:01:00 GMT

Mobile Device Management software got a boost from rivals SAP and Symantec who separately announced improvements to their management tools at Mobile Work Congress.

Free app sniffs out aggressive ad networks on Android

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:39:00 GMT

Lookout Security today launched a free program that scans Android devices for evidence of apps that use any of 35 different ad networks, and tells users what kinds of ads will be displayed and what user information is collected.

Researcher: 200,000 Windows PCs vulnerable to pcAnywhere hijacking

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:27:00 GMT

As many as 200,000 systems connected to the Internet could be hijacked by hackers exploiting bugs in Symantec's pcAnywhere, including up to 5,000 point-of-sale programs that collect credit card data, a researcher said today.

Researcher releases exploit code said able to crash pcAnywhere

(Lucian Constantin) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:58:00 GMT

Exploit code targeting a newly identified vulnerability in Symantec's pcAnywhere computer remote control product has been published on the Internet, exposing its users to possible attacks that disrupt the software's functionality.

(Fill in the blank)-as-a-service

(Brandon Butler) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:34:00 GMT

IaaS, SaaS and PaaS are the obvious as-a-service offerings, but there are plenty of others. In fact, just about every letter of the alphabet has an "as a service."

Symantec expects Anonymous to publish more stolen source code

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:30:00 GMT

Symantec today confirmed that the pcAnywhere source code published on the Web Monday by hackers who tried to extort $50,000 from the company was legitimate.

Anonymous claims to have released source code of Symantec's pcAnywhere

(John Ribeiro) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:17:00 GMT

Hacker group Anonymous claimed late Monday that the source code of Symantec's pcAnywhere had been uploaded on The Pirate Bay site.

Mobile device management: Apple's extra little tricky requirement

(Ellen Messmer) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:29:00 GMT

Anyone wanting to buy mobile-device management (MDM) software to manage Apple iOS devices will find they need a special digital certificate from Apple to activate it, a requirement that doesn't apply to the same MDM software that would be used to manage Google Android devices, for instance.

Kelihos botnet still dead, say Microsoft, Kaspersky

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:42:00 GMT

Contrary to reports, the Kelihos botnet has not crawled out of the grave, Microsoft said last week. But the company acknowledged that a new botnet is being assembled using a variant of the original malware.

Symantec releases faster next-gen NetBackup, Backup Exec software

lmearian@computerworld.com (Lucas Mearian) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:09:00 GMT

Symantec announced new versions of its flagship backup applications for SMBs and the enterprise adding more support for virtual machines, a cloud storage offering and integration of snapshot and backup management

Symantec warns of Android Trojans that mutate with every download

(Lucian Constantin) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:52:00 GMT

Researchers from security vendor Symantec have identified a new premium-rate SMS Android Trojan horse that modifies its code every time it gets downloaded in order to bypass antivirus detection.

VeriSign admits multiple hacks in 2010, keeps details under wraps

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:33:00 GMT

VeriSign, the company responsible for guiding most of the world's Internet users to the correct websites and once the largest encryption certificate issuing authority, was successfully hacked several times in 2010.

Symantec drops don't-use advice, gives pcAnywhere all-clear

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:15:00 GMT

Symantec has retracted its don't-use-pcAnywhere recommendation to owners of the remote access software.

Many pcAnywhere systems still sitting ducks

(Robert Lemos) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:15:00 GMT

Symantec warns that its product should not be connected directly to the Internet, yet an estimated 140,000 computers are configured to allow direct external access

Update: Industry group makes fresh push to fight phishing

(Jeremy Kirk) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:45:00 GMT

Companies such as Facebook, Google and PayPal are pushing for widespread use of a new technical specification, DMARC, that could make it harder for phishers to reach their victims.

Lookout Security rebuts rival's Android malware claims

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:52:00 GMT

Researchers from Lookout Security disagreed with rival Symantec that 13 apps on the Android Market were malicious, instead saying that they showed the same behaviors as other ad-supported apps.

Massive Android malware op may have infected 5 million users

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:02:00 GMT

The largest-ever Android malware campaign may have duped as many as 5 million users into downloading infected apps from Google's Android Market, Symantec said today.

Researchers unearth more Chinese links to defense contractor attacks

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:18:00 GMT

Symantec researchers have uncovered additional clues that point to Chinese hacker involvement in attacks against a large number of Western companies, including major U.S. defense contractors.

Threatened by Anonymous, Symantec tells users to pull pcAnywhere's plug

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:44:00 GMT

Symantec this week told users of its pcAnywhere remote access software to disable or uninstall the software while it fixes an unknown number of bugs.

Symantec backtracks, admits own network hacked

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:06:00 GMT

Symantec today backed away from earlier statements regarding the theft of source code of some of its flagship security products, now admitting that its own network was compromised.

Symantec acquires cloud storage vendor LiveOffice

(Jeremy Kirk) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:41:00 GMT

Symantec pays $115M for provider of cloud-based data archiving and storage service

Symantec employs scareware sales tactics, lawsuit charges

gkeizer@computerworld.com (Gregg Keizer) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:16:00 GMT

A Washington man on Tuesday sued Symantec in federal court, accusing it of using the same tactics as fake "scareware" software to sell its PC cleanup utilities.

Carrier IQ detection tool converted to premium SMS Trojan

(Lucian Constantin) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:46:00 GMT

Android malware writers are taking advantage of the controversy surrounding Carrier IQ's smartphone tracking software in order to distribute a premium SMS Trojan, security researchers from Symantec warn.

Symantec confirms source code leak in two enterprise security products

jvijayan@computerworld.com (Jaikumar Vijayan) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:42:00 GMT

Symantec late Thursday confirmed that source code used in two of its older enterprise security products was publicly exposed by hackers this week.

Hacker group threatens to release Symantec AV source code

jvijayan@computerworld.com (Jaikumar Vijayan) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:36:00 GMT

Symantec is investigating an Indian hacking group's claims that it accessed source code used in the company's flagship Norton Antivirus program.

Altered Android application spreads a martyr's message

(Jeremy Kirk) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:08:00 GMT

A popular Android application for Muslim users has been curiously hacked to commemorate the memory of a Tunisian produce vendor whose suicide kicked off anti-government protests in the country a year ago.

5 IT security breakthroughs promise to thwart threats

johnmbrandon@gmail.com (John Brandon) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:50:00 GMT

For the past 25 years, a war has waged between malicious programmers and the researchers trying to make computing safe for the enterprise. The battle has shown no signs of subsiding — once a new countermeasure is deployed, the hackers find new ways to make IT worried. Insider (registration required)