Hackers in India Leak Symantec Source Code

[exfileme]

A hacker group based out of India has acquired the source code to Norton Antivirus.

Hackers in India Leak Symantec Source Code : Read more

 

[Guest]

I thought they were all busy calling my place claiming to be working for microsoft and trying get me to install remote control software.

 

[saxplayingcompnerd]

who would want the source code for some of the worst antivirus software? That's like wanting dog DNA so you can figure out how it makes poop.

 

[igot1forya]

I hope they release it... maybe someone will come along and improve it then.

 

[jurassic1024]

Norton AV has come a long way. It is far from the worst. More like a top 5 AV now.

 

[makafri]

making poop is big deal man

 

[captaincharisma]

ha source code more like a virus that has been making computers crawl since the mid 1990's

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]saxplayingcompnerd[/nom]who would want the source code for some of the worst antivirus software? That's like wanting dog DNA so you can figure out how it makes poop.[/citation]
Why do people keep this up? Do people think it makes them look important to not keep current?

Yes, a few years ago Norton had a bad reputation for being bloated and taking up cycles and memory. However, they did rebuild their products and they run very lean and catch almost everything thrown at them. They are always at the top of independent reviewers in both how little memory and CPU time they take up as well as what they detect.

 

[cookoy]

the title says "Leak" while the first sentence says "threatening to release"

 

[A Bad Day]

It would be interesting to see a malware that exploits an AV software's vulnerabilities to gain control of the computer. Talk about irony.

[citation][nom]saxplayingcompnerd[/nom]who would want the source code for some of the worst antivirus software? That's like wanting dog DNA so you can figure out how it makes poop.[/citation]
Norton AV isn't like it what used to be in the past. If it's still a piece of junk, it would've withered away from competing AV softwares and the relentless flood of malware.

 

[memadmax]

As others have said before....

Poop...

 

[rubix_1011]

'Accidentally' leaving someone on the network for someone to find is often referred to as a honey pot. Government departments don't make a habit of leaving servers full of valuable code open and unmonitored just at random. I agree it does happen, but the likelyhood of something being that substantial may only be some mock code that was left there as bait for network intruders. This is common policy for network security protocols.

 

[lp231]

[citation][nom]A Bad Day[/nom]It would be interesting to see a malware that exploits an AV software's vulnerabilities to gain control of the computer. Talk about irony.Norton AV isn't like it what used to be in the past. If it's still a piece of junk, it would've withered away from competing AV softwares and the relentless flood of malware.[/citation]
Norton has build itself based on marketing and branding much like Monster Cable and BOSE.
If you ask a Joe or Jane what AV software they'll recommended and Norton is the first thing that pops into their heads.

 

[Thunderfox]

Hey, maybe the open source community can improve it. They certainly can't make it any worse.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

[citation][nom]saxplayingcompnerd[/nom]who would want the source code for some of the worst antivirus software? That's like wanting dog DNA so you can figure out how it makes poop.[/citation]
I'm not sure that made sense but damn it sounded funny.

 

[ojas]

:lol:

I actually believe them. Won't be surprised if Government servers got hacked.

And to be honest, i believe that symantec is right, it must be a few years old. I have faith in my Government

BTW, no norton is pretty good actually. Have been running 360/NIS for three years now, it's great. Even runs on and old IBM thinkpad with a pentium M without any issues. Stalled my p4 though!
However, it's overpriced, so i doubt i'm going to renew my licence next year.

 

[razor512]

I bet those hackers were shocked to find source code from both prime95 and memtest within the Norton source code.

if user has any free memory
then allocate all free memory for temp storage of calculated prime numbers
//classic Norton's

 

[Guest]

I agree, Norton is a good product. Branding is not a bad thing - look at Apple. They market an experience. So too does Symantec. A trouble-free experience for most users. Save for the dumb ones (like some that have posted above with outdated comments!). If you prefer to get your AV from Chinese, Romanian, Finnish and UK companies GREAT, all the power to you. I will stand behind a US company any day - and especially one with a solid reputation like Symantec.

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]Bob Mann[/nom]I agree, Norton is a good product. Branding is not a bad thing - look at Apple. They market an experience. So too does Symantec. A trouble-free experience for most users. Save for the dumb ones (like some that have posted above with outdated comments!). If you prefer to get your AV from Chinese, Romanian, Finnish and UK companies GREAT, all the power to you. I will stand behind a US company any day - and especially one with a solid reputation like Symantec.[/citation]
What about MSE? Microsoft's based in Seattle, MSE is nice and light and effective and free, what more could you want?

 

[falchard]

Protection, which is why you use ESET NOD32.

 

[soundping]

Symantec: Nothing to see here.. move along, move along..

 

[mickey21]

A lot of comments on versions Norton admits werent the most efficient, but since 2009 they have turned the other direction and lightened the client up to the point of night and day. Newer versions are much faster/lighter and work much better than the past. Something companies that competed like McAfee cant say.

Problem is you have a lot of new companies that claim to be better at it and sometimes are, but dont have the track record to back it up or the countries they hail from being very friendly to other nations. It pays to look behind the product to see who is producing the product and how much faith you can put in them. For me, I cant say I trust many of them, just glad at least for now Norton is a good product to go with, otherwise I guess your basic/good free version of Microsoft Security Essentials is where it is at.

 

[darkavenger123]

[citation][nom]saxplayingcompnerd[/nom]who would want the source code for some of the worst antivirus software? That's like wanting dog DNA so you can figure out how it makes poop.[/citation]

I don't know which hole you crawl out from...year 2000??? NIS is one of the best and speediest Internet Protection Suite around. You must be still using Windows XP and the old bloated Norton back in early 2000 or something.

 

[eddieroolz]

I don't see an immediate fallout from this, or even in the long-term. Source code is of limited use anyway.

 

[captaincharisma]

All this hate for Norton is funny. NAV is a top 3 product at this point. I run NIS 2012 and it's light on resources and catches anything and everything sent my way. It's really going to "wither away" as someone said...right. The past 2 companies I've worked for have run their corp editions.

its a top product because it ships with almost every computer. then when the user finds out how bad it is they remove it and install a better AV

its just like intel being the leader in GPU sales because new computers include integrated graphics on there mobos