Symantec reveals vision for better security

Chief executive John W Thompson promises improved protection for firms

The ninth annual Symantec Vision customer and strategy event in San Francisco saw the security specialist commit to protecting enterprise data and online transactions through a combination of client software and service provider network tools.

The company is also looking at ways to expand its enterprise security and email management offerings, and deliver enterprise software though web services. It additionally plans to pour money into its marketing in anticipation of a fight with Microsoft to deliver security utilities to PCs, laptops, PDAs and smartphones.

Symantec chief executive John W Thompson stressed that security should not be limited to the perimeters of the LAN, but should be moved closer to the data itself to protect it as it moves across enterprise infrastructure.

Thompson said this trusted environment could be made up of many different platforms and devices, spanning business partner networks, supply chains, and even customer links, with authorisation measures to ensure that the right people get access to the right information.

But Thompson refused to elaborate on any plans to integrate data encryption or identity management in Symantec products, which most experts agree would be necessary for this scheme.

“The network tier will always be a valuable way of evaluating the risk of malicious traffic, but it’s like saying that because I have locks on my door, I’m protected from all types of physical threats, and that’s simply not true,” Thompson said. “You have to protect people from insider threats, at the moment of their interaction and their transaction.”

Symantec is also working with service providers to remove viruses, spam and prevent denial-of-service (DoS) and phishing attacks via network traffic before it reaches end-user devices. Similar features are already embedded in routers from network vendors such as Cisco and Juniper.

Symantec’s Norton internet security and antivirus tools are widely deployed on new PCs (users are charged for updates), but the vendor fears that Microsoft will integrate similar tools into future versions of Windows, and users will receive updates as part of the licence fee.

“We know more about security than Microsoft ever will,” Thompson argued. “The Microsoft brand is synonymous with a lot of things but security is not one of them. It’s not a foregone conclusion that it will win, quite the contrary.”

Symantec staff expressed doubt that Symantec has the stomach for the looming battle, however. They also pointed out that many customers who find Norton security products installed on their new computers often disable or uninstall them because they find they restrict internet and system performance.

“What’s in John Thompson’s head is not necessarily what the strategy is going to be,” said one Symantec insider.