Symantec To Acquire LifeLock for $2.3B (usatoday.com)

Symantec is acquiring identity-theft protection firm LifeLock for $2.3 billion, the companies announced today. It's the company's latest move to branch out from malware protection into cybersecurity, following its purchase of Blue Coat, a company that safeguards web transactions. "With the combination of Norton and LifeLock, we will be able to deliver comprehensive cyber defense for consumers," Symantec said. From a report on USA Today:Symantec will finance the deal with a combination of cash and $750 million of new debt, the company said in a statement. The deal will close during the first calendar quarter of 2017. The combination of LifeLock and Norton, Symantec's suite of antivirus and anti-spyware tools, will help the company deliver "comprehensive" protection for consumers, said Symantec CEO Greg Clark. "This acquisition marks the transformation of the consumer security industry from malware protection to the broader category of digital safety for consumers," said Clark. Symantec sees a growing market for digital safety, estimated at $10 billion and 80 million consumers. "People's identity and data are prime targets of cybercrime," said Symantec board chairman Dan Schulman. "The security industry must step up and defend through innovation and vigilance."

Comments

Worthless junk

[Anonymous Coward]

Norton + LifeLock = No Thanks.

Two bad products rolled into one. Genius.

Re:Worthless junk

[MightyMartian]

It's the perfect security system. Your system will slow to a crawl, to the point where you just get up and go do something else, never having put any confidential data on your computer at all.

Re:Worthless junk

[CaptainDork]

This.

In fact, Lifelock CEO Davis was the victim of identity theft in 2007 when a thief used his widely advertised Social Security number to obtain a $500 loan in Davis’ name.

What does Lifelock _do_ ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Outside of scaring AARP members to pay for it, what do they actually DO for you?

Solved by copyright

[AK Marc]

Let me copyright my SSN, and my name/birthdate combination. If you could copyright your personal data, then sue for identity theft. As it stands now, the penalties for stores that mishandle your data is near-zero. And there's a growing number of companies that hold information, but don't contact people. They sell the database, but without right.

So when you tell Bob to take you off their list, they can't. The list is owned by Alice, and Alice will never call you. Chris calls, from the same list Bob used. You can never get off the list Bob used. That should be illegal. Anyone that holds or uses your personal data should be required by law to disclose where they learned it from.

But the government passes CAN SPAM laws that tell companies they can spam you. But nobody in power wants to change it, so we are left with government by the 1% for the 1%.

Why LifeLock?

[bluefoxlucid]

What does LifeLock even do now? Originally, they just put false fraud alerts on clients's credit; they got sued for that, and now what? How do they monitor?

I'm not sure what LifeLock even provides anymore, besides a target for lawsuits.

Worthless companies combine!

[The-Ixian]

Form of: dinosaur!

Lifelock is useless

[mschuyler]

A couple of years ago I got caught in the Stratfor hack. They waited a couple of weeks before telling customers. I verified my info was in the wild. A full month later Lifelock informed me I might have been hacked. By that time I had replaced everything. Useless service.