Symantec claims anti-virus is "dead"

[Scorpus]

One of the major players in the digital security business, Symantec, has publicly stated that anti-virus software is "dead", due to the fact its protection methods are often ineffective against today's advanced malware attacks.

Anti-virus is no longer a moneymaker, according to Symantec's senior vice president for information security, Brian Dye. He estimates that just 45% of cyberattacks are prevented by anti-virus software, which is why companies such as Symantec are moving towards alternate and more effective methods of protecting clients from security threats.

Symantec is creating a new response team dedicated to helping businesses affected by cybersecurity attacks, and within six months, the company will begin offering special intelligence briefings to companies who want to learn why and how they're being hacked. A tool is also in development within the company that will look for advanced malware within a company's network, going beyond the capabilities of traditional anti-virus software.

But Symantec aren't the first to offer security solutions aimed at detecting and minimizing damage from clever security breaches. Juniper Networks offers services to distract hackers from sensitive data, while FireEye has technology that scans computers for malicious code after it inevitably breaches standard anti-virus software.

With revenues forecast to fall 5% year-on-year, Symantec is hoping that new damage control and information tools will help turn the company around. Dye said that there are currently no plans to ditch Norton, as it and similar products from the company account for 40% of their revenue, but more innovative security tools may become the big business they need.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/56656-symantec-claims-anti-virus-is-dead.html

 

[tragicallyhip]

Speak for yourself Symantec, your product always did suck.Now you tell the world that 40% of your revenue comes from a product that is only 45% effective, I predict the revenue stream will now be far below 40%. Hint: Don't dog your products in public.

 

[Sniped_Ash]

No, Symantec, you're losing money because you make crappy AV products that nobody wants.

 

[Guest]

You guys can note that they say this because their product sucks all you want. The fact is, more and more people are bring in laptops/desktops for repairs/cleaning due to malware that most of the AV suites can't fend off. It is not just Norton, but AVG, Vipre, Comodo, Kaspersky, McaFee, Panda, and other well know AVs and AV suites. More and more people are needing other applications to keep them safe, such at MalwareBytes, Superantispyware, Adaware, Spybot, etc...

 

[wastedkill]

Its probably because just finding stuff you have in a DB versus whats out their isnt effective at all is it, in reality we need a sandbox cogneto type AV software, where if anything tries sneakily getting in then it will alert us the same way android does with installing apps.

 

[Nobina]

I stopped using Antiviruses years ago. They just slow down everything and I've never noticed that Antivirus did something good to me. I had more OS reinstalls with AV than without it. Since then, I just install some AV maybe once in a couple of months to scan my PC which is somehow always clean.

 

[misor]

So in essence, Symantec corp says antivirus is dead... and the customer must now purchase the more expensive, 'more complete' internet security suite.

 

[RenGood08]

I agree that you need more than antivirus. There are some things that antivirus just doesn't catch. I have AVG and Malwarebytes on my laptop. I've recently ran into issues with my DVD drive and I was wondering if I had an infection. Ran my antivirus, nothing showed up. Ran malwarebytes, came up with 8 incidents of malicious activity on my computer. (didn't fix the issue...-.-) But I know you need more than AV...

 

[RenGood08]

Oh...and so tagging this article for my Hacking and Countermeasures class!

 

[fredderf81]

I used to remove this crap from customer pcs before I graduated and finally got to stop dealing with these *****s. I have not had an anti virus on my pc for years. You know how I avoid this trash? I do not view porn, I do not download torrents, I do not use limewire, bearshare or anything like them, and I DO NOT CLICK ON LINKS IN EMAILS. It never failed. Everyone some ***** brought in a computer full of crap, I always ask the same questions and they always answer yes to the same questions. You know I never once felt bad when they had to fork over a bunch of money for me to remove them...if you are THAT stupid you get what you deserve.

 

[hahahanoobs]

I don't think Norton is talking about its AV's that are used for personal use here...

 

[EEatGDL]

Its probably because just finding stuff you have in a DB versus whats out their isnt effective at all is it, in reality we need a sandbox cogneto type AV software, where if anything tries sneakily getting in then it will alert us the same way android does with installing apps.

It doesn't work that way, those permissions are written upfront in the app's manifest, not that Android "scans" the app; if the app wants to do something illegal or against your will, nothing will stop it because you gave it permissions and the OS isn't monitoring its actions. Simply because of legacy, that approach wouldn't work in Windows traditional programs because they were never required to state such explicit permission requests nor the OS is designed to check that.

 

[Sniped_Ash]

Whether it's personal or corporate, the best way to deal with malware is to prevent it from getting into the system in the first place. Keep **** updated, disable autorun, keep **** updated, only browse with adblock/noscript.etc., keep **** updated, yes it's spam don't click that attachment, etc.

If you're getting targeted by hackers for reals, that's another story, but hey guess what keeps them from exploiting a vulnerability that's already been patched? That's right: KEEP **** UPDATED.

 

[VitalyT]

So, Symantec is dead in the water, but let's point finger at everybody else, so it doesn't make you look so bad.

Great piggyback strategy, Symantec!

 

[Seventh Reign]

Wait I'm confused .... I thought Symantec's Norton WAS a virus...

 

[Guest]

Symantec, haspublicly stated that anti-virus software is "dead", due to the fact its protection methods are often ineffective against today's advanced malware attacks.

They should try to download another antivirus.

 

[GhostRyder]

Meh, I can see what they are saying but I've not liked Norton for years. In truth most Cyber attacks now are much harder to predict and the databases cannot keep up. But that does not make it dead Symantec lol

There are better products out there for this type of stuff.

 

[metalSHOCK]

It hurts my brain to read through the article and see 'Symantec are....' (@_@)

 

[Rodger-AU]

Symantec are right, the traditional means of Anti-Virus protection is redundant, perhaps dead is the wrong phrase, but redundant is spot on,

I have tried and tested all of the major players and many of the minor ones, thus certainly all of the popular ones and they all fail, for years now the best means of protection was to use two or three Anti-Virus Applications, though I am finding that harder to do with the newer interfaces and they do not seem to like each other, no matter that, the malware still gets in and thus so do the virii.

I am not a fan of the Nortons Application, though years ago thier multi facetted tools were the best around, Disk Doctor was the best of its kind, and remains so for use on the older machines,
Symantec are correct, Anti-Virus applications need to take a new direction, the old way is no longer valid and this is why so many of the Anti-Virus makers are seeing drops in revenue as the end user sees the programs failing more and more,
I am just glad that one of the big players has finally seen this trend, the same trend I've been watching for the past 3 years.

I have to cleanse the PC's on my worksite at monthly just to keep on top of the problem, and I am not even the company technician. I just help him out.

 

[Guest]

A tool is also in development within the company that will look for advanced malware within a company's network, going beyond the capabilities of traditional anti-virus software.

I smell skynet

 

[Vrmithrax]

On a related note, Facebook has just announced that social media is dead, and Bose reports that sound quality is highly over-rated...

Seriously, though... This entire thing with Symantec is a marketing ploy, and a weird one at that. You have to wonder how the marketing conversation went... "Hey guys, let's publicly announce our inadequacy, so people realize that that we've been charging for crap software that apparently does not good (and often can't even compete with free versions), and then blame the bad guys for making better bad guy stuff... Oh, and by the way, we're concentrating on that new bad guy stuff and how to fight it, so now that you are afraid and know that all anti-virus is useless, you should totally go out and buy our new better stronger stuff, we'll do a way better job this time, promise!"

 

[captaincranky]

The only thing I've gleaned from this article, is that Symantec's employees sit around on their fat a**es and get paid the big bucks for coding do nothing software, while the bad guys are busting theirs to defeat them.

The same s*** goes on at M$. The programmers cruise through the weeks on autopilot, and come up with an OS, which all intents and purposes, is a public paid beta, and nobody buys it.

So when Symantec announces its new product that, "will be effective against the new generation of malware", it seems only fair for them to charge twice as much for it......

 

[Jad Chaar]

Speak for yourself Symantec, your product always did suck.Now you tell the world that 40% of your revenue comes from a product that is only 45% effective, I predict the revenue stream will now be far below 40%. Hint: Don't dog your products in public.

Yeah they screwed up. Yes AV is quite ineffective, but I bet you some people feel like they are protected by AV and therefore their PCs are invisible to attacks. Yeah it is known that AV is ineffective, but it doesnt need to be made public.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Yeah it is known that AV is ineffective, but it doesnt need to be made public.

At least not before a better solution (effective solution) is available!

 

[Urban]

If you removed your antivirus programs then how do you know if you're infected?

Unless you had malware that affected performance you'd never know if you didn't have an antivirus program to tell you. A few clean scans per year is not sufficient to claim a computer system is malware-free.