Symantec Corporation

A security company that was founded in 1982 and has headquarters in Cupertino, California. The company has more than 5,500 employees and operations in more than 35 countries. Considered by many to be a global leader in information security, the Symantec Corporation provides a broad range of IT security appliances, software, and services for home computer users and businesses of all sizes. Moreover, Symantec’s Norton product brand is a leader in consumer security solutions.

On March 21, 2005, Symantec Corporation issued a report noting that Internet attacks grew by 28% in the second half of 2004, relative to the first half of the year. On average, businesses and other agencies received 13.6 attacks on their computer networks daily in the second half of 2004, the report said, in comparison to to 10.6 attacks in the first six months of that year. The financial sector apparently was the favored hack attack target. Moreover, noted the security experts at Symantec, crackers now seem to be setting their sights on mobile computers.

According to this same Symantec Corporation report, the favored attack tools included adware and spyware, as well as phishing. The reported costs to U.S. firms in 2004 from phishing scams alone was in excess of $1.2 billion.

See Also: Phishing; Spyware.