What’s up with Symantec?

Layer 8 reader Ken is a senior network engineer who’s wondering what’s up with Symantec these days – Norton Internet Security/Antivirus 2005, in particular.

Up until now Ken says he’s been very happy with Norton and has recommended it to others. But then he ran into Norton Internet Security/Antivirus 2005, which he says has forced him to uninstall, clean up and reinstall the software on three machines.

“Initial symptoms were slow boot/shutdown and no/limited Internet access. All I did was a uninstall/delete every Symantec file I could find, reinstall, and now the machines seem to be working fine,” he wrote Symantec. “From the reviews I have heard that Norton Internet Security 2006 is even worse.”

Ken’s also unhappy with Symantec’s slow response to the Sony rootkit kerfuffle. He pointed us to a Wired article that notes: “At first the company didn’t consider XCP malware at all. It wasn’t until Nov. 11 that Symantec posted a tool to remove the cloaking. As of Nov. 15, it is still wishy-washy about it, explaining that ‘this rootkit was designed to hide a legitimate application, but it can be used to hide other objects, including malicious software.’ The only thing that makes this rootkit legitimate is that a multinational corporation put it on your computer, not a criminal organization.”

Thanks to Ken for the heads-up on Norton 2005. If he hears back from Symantec with any info, we’ll pass it along.