symantec

It's September, so it's time for Internet security companies to release their annual reports and surveys about the threats seen in the first six months of the year. The reports from IBM, Arbor Networks (free registration required), and Symantec (in PDF) each looked at different areas of the Internet in specific but generally found that botnets are on the rise, and that the tools used for attack have gone professional with less noise from mere amateurs. Two of the reports went to find the top three vendors most affected by newly disclosed vulnerabilities were Microsoft, Apple and Oracle, … Read more

Patrick Manzo, Monster Worldwide's vice president of compliance and fraud prevention, today said going forward, the company is notifying all users in its active job-seeker database that their information may be compromised.

This announcement comes one day after Monster's CEO Sal Iannuzzi admitted the theft of contact information for job seekers in Monster's database may have been much greater than the 1.3 million individuals reported earlier this month.

Monster said it learned of the proverbial break-in when it was notified by security vendor Symantec. And Monster said it wanted to launch its own investigation to verify … Read more

Editors' note: This blog initially misstated the last day for submitting photos. It is October 15.

Ever thought (or were ever told) that you resembled one of those emoticons you see in e-mail or IM? Me neither. But for those who have had that experience, Symantec has launched a worldwide emoticon look-alike contest.

Now through October 15, contestants can upload their best resemblances to an emoticon for a chance to win a grand prize of $10,000 cash, or one of five first place prizes of $1,000 each. Anyone who enters will receive a 15 percent discount on the … Read more

My father's Motorola E815 from Verizon is suffering chronic SMS, or text message, spam. At first, the unwanted messages trickled in--religious messages with pictures of saints one time, pharmaceutical marketing another. Then the spam rate escalated. After one spammy text message yesterday and two this morning, Dad decided he wanted out.

"Out" in his case, and in the case of most North American mobile phone users, is as much about the phone bill as it is receiving unwanted texts. Service providers like Verizon and T-Mobile charge for inbound and outbound SMS activity, either per message, generally 10 cents to 15 cents per outgoing text message, or as part of a larger service, usually between $5 and $10 more per month depending on the plan. Data downloads cost extra too, so spam texts with image attachments ratchet up the bill. "This was becoming an expensive habit," says Dad.

The kicker, of course, is that it's not his habit.… Read more

Symantec has released a public beta for its new suite of smart phone protection, called Norton Smartphone Security Premier Edition. Features in this release include antivirus protection, antispam for SMS, firewall, personal data protection through encryption, and locking the device via password protection.

The beta software requires a mobile device running Windows Mobile 5.0 PocketPC with 4.5MB of storage or Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone with 4.2MB of storage. Access to the public beta can be found here.

Symantec has added Norton Antivirus 2008 and Norton Internet Security 2008 to it's Beta Center. Enhancements to Norton Antivirus 2008 include better performance and updated Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response (SONAR) heuristics. Enhancements to Norton Internet Security 2008 include those in Norton Antivirus 2008 plus Norton Identity Safe (from Norton Confidential), and enhanced network monitoring. Both pieces of software are expected to include new browser vulnerability protection, codenamed "Canary", in their final release.

The Symantec beta program includes no technical support, although customer feedback is welcome. Symantec reminds participants in the beta program not to install … Read more

As part of their upcoming Norton Internet Security 2008 product, Symantec will include a new technology they're currently calling "Canary." The idea behind Canary is vulnerable browsers are the first point of entry for many Web threats known as "drive by" downloads. Canary will identify signatures of known Internet Explorer browser vulnerabilities then block exploits as soon as they are released. "Canary creates vulnerability signatures," said Rowan Trollope, vice president of Consumer Products at Symantec. Signatures for other browsers, including Firefox, will be included in the future.

The timing of this new technology … Read more

These days, criminal enterprises don't just want to steal your Outlook contact list, they want to own your computer, and they will download a remote-access Trojan horse at the first available opportunity. Within the last six months, Symantec has seen the number of these "bot" infections increase 29 percent over the previous six months. That's why Symantec is rushing to market a new application they're calling Norton AntiBot.

While most antivirus applications today provide adequate protection against spyware and malware, once these are removed, your machine is vulnerable to new and different variations of the … Read more

As traditional security vendors race to embrace mobile phones as their next platform offering, a few are stepping back and making sure they get it right. Symantec's new suite is designed for home users running Windows Mobile technology on their mobile devices. It includes an antivirus application; a personal firewall; an anti-SMS spam application; data encryption for both the device itself and memory cards; feature control to disable Bluetooth, wireless and syncing when not necessary; and an optional virtual private network (VPN), version 2.6, with network access control that can be set to allow only policy-compliant devices.

The … Read more