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A Bad Week for Symantec
Evan Hughes writes "NeoSmart Technologies has published a scathing editorial regarding 3 high-profile mistakes by Symantec Corp. — all in less than a week. In what seems to be a string of stupid mistakes culminating in the infection of CNN-parent Turner Broadcasting Systems by Rinbot— a virus dedicated to the eradication of Symantec from the known world."
NeoSmart Technologies has published a scathing editorial regarding 3 high-profile mistakes by Symantec Corp. -- all in less than a week
Maybe they're not mistakes... maybe it's just a form of viral marketing.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
....in my experience modern Symantec products such as Norton Internet Security is the most malicious, but successful form of malware ever. It actually gets people to pay money for the product, and in a lot of cases, pay other people to install it and keep it on their system.
I'm so glad I moved out of software maintenance and into hardware maintentance. Now I just wipe harddrives clean as a whistle and make sure the hardware works. Such a load off!
do() || do_not();
Every experience I have ever had with a Symantec product has been utterly terrible. Generally they cause more problems than they solve.
Turner apparently got hit because it had not yet updated the Symantec programs on its computers. A fix for the flaw has been available since May and security experts have repeatedly urged users to protect their computers by applying the update.
Hmm hmm hmm people are dumb.
webpage
Furthermore, doesn't Free AVG only update once a week as well?
If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
a virus dedicated to the eradication of Symantec from the known world
That's not a virus. That's a feature.
Best Windows Freeware
because CNN is infected?
1. Estimates are 100-150 million machines are currently part of botnets
2. Loss estimates exceed 200 billion annually on a global basis
3. Over 80% of all spam comes from botnets
Yes, I can cite. Or you can Google. They are all easy to find.
This is a HUGE problem that is, in many ways, like spam was in 1996 or 1997. The technical community acknowledges it, the average consumer has no clue, and, left unaddressed the problem and associated looses will get much, much worse.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Since we're talking about Windows machines, I can tell you for certain which comes first.
People often don't update their software for years at a time. Hey, it costs. Which is why NAV is designed to update itself automatically. You just have to configure it correctly.
I'm no fan of Symantec. It's perfectly true that they're badly run. Hey, they used to be a lot more than a "security software" company, but all their other business (natural language databases, compilers, IDEs, desktop software, backup software) just died on them. But to blame them for the ineptitude of the CNN's IT department is idiotic.
How bad does it have to be for people to Stop using windows?
when the OS let's Steve ballmer and Microsoft know when you are in the shouse so a guy can show up dressed as clippy and forcibly anal rape you.
Yes, it will have to get that bad before the sheeple out there actually switch.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Seconded. The only time I get reboots is when it's required for a security patch, or the occasional "application freaking the #$@%^& out" kinda thing...servers, workstations, all of 'em. And if it weren't for that, I'd be pushing 90-120 day uptimes on most of my machines. Yes, Windows machines.
In fact, I'll get you the data.
Main server has rebooted twice in the last four months for security patches, total ~19 minutes downtime.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
Symantec has seen quite a bit of negative publicity in the past year on slashdot.
I have to wonder how much of it is simply astroturfing by disgruntled former employees? When there's a negative op/ed piece on a "software development and security research" website where none of the SQL even works, I just have to wonder if some no-talent assclown is pissed off because he lost his helpdesk or HR job.
I uninstall Symantec Corporate Edition all the time. Works a treat.
We've got an AV server and all of our clients are managed. We set the server up to check Symantec every two hours for updates and those updates are pushed down to the clients almost immediately.
Need to install all of your clients to the latest version (say from 9 -> 10)? Click Tools | Install Client Remotely and push it down from a central location.
We check our clients and any computer that is more than a week out of date is turned on and updated.
The only reason I can think of that so many people are complaining is because they've only used the consumer version. When we get student laptops we immediately remove it and install the corporate version that is free for them. I've never had a problem uninstalling the trialware version of the AV that ships with so many laptops.
Whenever I have to fix a screwed up PC, MsAfee or Symantec is disabled by the malicious code. So, I always uninstall whatever is on the machine and install something else like AVG or ClamWin.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Windows is pretty damn good nowadays, but my Linux web server only goes down when the ISP has a power problem. That happens about once a year. In four years, the machine rebooted 5 times and never once due to Linux.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
... Every machine that comes to me for service has one requirement: No Norton. Take norton off, and people are *amazed* at how much faster their machines run.
I substitute Free-av.com for Norton- better infection detection, less memory overhead, free (with the option of buying a license- I usually guilt them into doing it), and nightly upgrades.
The reason Windows has so much malware problems is because it's the most common operating system used, therefore it's in the best interest of the malware developers to write malware for Windows. If the most popular operating system was OS X, then OS X would have the most malware problems. The same goes for Linux or .
Although they may hold on to the enterprise market, why even bother with Norton AntiVirus or Internet Security when you can get Avast AntiVirus Personal edition for free! http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html/
No, I don't work for them, or own stock. They've even updated it for Vista. The cost? Register for a free serial number every 14 months.
Comodo firewall http://www.comodo.com/ is nice free step up for those who think they need something more than Windows firewall.
In the year 2007, there is really no need for a consumer to pay for a product from Symantec/Norton, McAfee, or any other security software vendor that has been fleecing us for the last several years.
I have nothing to worry about as I'm running Solaris. Despite the fact that people are continuously trying to hack me I have no worries. Right now (I'll look at the network activity) ?? funny someone has telneted in using some -froot argument. I wonder wha[No Carrier]
Australian running a company that does C# / C++ / Java / SQL / Python / Mathematica
One of my clients has a relatively large Symantec AntiVirus deployment (something like 35,000 Windows PCs). I was, among many other things, directly and soley responsible for their Symantec AntiVirus architecture for several years. I assure you that there are many issues which can be easily overcome at the scale of 300 machines which are pretty close to show stoppers at the 30,000 node scale. I agree that Symantec Enterprise Edition is a reasonable AntiVirus product, but its weakest link, ironically enough, are the issues that arise when trying to deploy, operate, and maintain it at the scale of a real enterprise.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.