Symantec Granted Patent For Key Information Security Technology

Symantec News Release ^ | 3/2/2005 | Symantec

[GeorgiaFreeper]

Symantec Granted Patent For Key Information Security Technology

Newly Patented Technology Is Fundamental Throughout Industry-Leading Symantec Solutions

CUPERTINO, Calif. - March 2, 2005 - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), the global leader in information security, today announced that it has been granted a new patent for antivirus technology by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Symantec has been granted U.S. patent number 6,851,057 for a system that enables the detection of complex viruses, worms, and spyware. The technology, "data driven detection of viruses," is employed throughout Symantec's portfolio of industry-leading information security solutions at the desktop, server, and gateway for both consumers and enterprises.

The invention represents a fundamental component of modern threat detection software, and is applicable to all operating systems and classes of malicious code. By establishing a mechanism that enables researchers to write simple detection scripts to allow for complex scanning and emulation of executable files, complex threats such as self-mutating viruses, worms, and spyware can be detected. Furthermore, researchers are able to aim an antivirus scanner at specific regions of each file for inspection, rather that having to scan larger regions of files and slowing down the operation of a computer.

The technology was developed and patented by Carey Nachenberg, chief architect with Symantec Research Labs. This marks the sixteenth information security-related patent awarded to Nachenberg in the last eight years.

"Over the years, viruses, worms and spyware have evolved considerably, making detection by traditional antivirus software increasingly difficult and time-consuming," said Nachenberg. "This invention fundamentally reduces the complexity of detecting malicious software and shortens the response time needed to address new threats without the need for new product updates or patches."

"This patent is part of a strategic portfolio that allows Symantec to continue to set the standard for innovation in the information security industry," said Michael Schallop, director of Intellectual Property for Symantec. "The diversity of our intellectual property assets reflects Symantec's focus and commitment to researching the various types of technologies necessary to develop the industry-leading security and information integrity solutions that our customers need to protect themselves from today's cyber threats."

Symantec maintains a diverse portfolio of intellectual property, such as copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and technological know-how. In particular, Symantec frequently applies for patents in the United States and internationally to protect its inventions through patents. Symantec currently owns 121 patents in a variety of areas including antivirus, intrusion detection/prevention, firewall, security and software management, storage and imaging, software distribution, compression/encryption, anti-spam, anti-spyware and virtual private network security.

[GeorgiaFreeper]

More grist for you software patent haters. On a good note, maybe they will be able to create a better working antivirual solution.

[baseball_fan]

Thanks for posting... user of symantec products...

[Paleo Conservative]

I wish Symantec should make improvements to the Norton Utilities. I think anyone who has a system administrator's privileges should be able to purge all the browser caches and website histories for all users of all the computers on a network. This would be especially useful to do before making tape backups of system partitions of networked computers.

I also wish it were possible to tell the Norton Speed Disk to wipe all slack space on the hard disk when defragging the hard disk. The old DOS versions of Speed Disk had the option to do that. This would erase traces of deleted files.

[GeorgiaFreeper]

Here is a link to the patent ... http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6851057.WKU.&OS=PN/6851057&RS=PN/6851057

[GeorgiaFreeper]

I have never had a good opionion of Norton utilities. I used an older version on Windows 98 and the software kinda took over the machine and I had many strange crashes. I had to reload Windows to get rid of it. Ever since, I have avoided Norton Utilities (and its descendent's).

I do use Norton Internet Security and Anti-virus as well as Norton Ghost. Those are solid products.

For defragging, I use diskkeeper (the big brother of the free one that comes with WinXP).

[Paleo Conservative]

I have never had a good opionion of Norton utilities. I used an older version on Windows 98 and the software kinda took over the machine and I had many strange crashes. I had to reload Windows to get rid of it. Ever since, I have avoided Norton Utilities (and its descendent's).

I avoided Windows 98. I used to use Diskeeper when I ran Windows NT 4.0. I didn't think it was as good at optimizing the disk as Speed Disk when it finally supported NT, but that was at least a year after I got Diskeeper.

[blastdad51]

Symantec's customer support stinks, other than that they make a pretty good anti-virus/firewall product.

[agitator]

Symantec anything sucks and Symantec sucks. Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Amen on Symantec's Tech Support--it does stink! Symantec's tech support is in India--they can't understand me and I can't understand them--seems to be a language or extreme accent problem. When they responded to my emails, the response I received had absolutely no relevance to the question/problem that I asked them about. I've called Symantec's Corporate HQ and complained on two separate occasions--total waste of time.

[GeorgiaFreeper]

Symantec's tech support is in India

I had an issue with a Dell laptop and called their support number. I know I was in trouble when I recognized that distinct bastardized British accent. What luck ... Dell had outsourced the support to India.

By the time the call was done, I think we were on the verge of an international incident ... I could not get the idiot off of his script long enough for him to see that I had an actual hardware problem instead of a software / driver issue. We had to go through his entire scripted set of responses (both of us saying "repeat that last statement" many times). It took over an 1 1/2 hours before he reached the end of "things to try". I would rather throw the machine in the trash than suffer through another international support call. It is just as well that I did not buy the 3 year warranty they were pushing when I bought the machine. Another support call and I probably would have a stroke.

[ExTexasRedhead]

I've heard that Dell is moving their "Corporate" tech support back to the US (because of numerous complaints), but not Tech Support for personal PC's. Apparently, corporate accounts are their bread and butter. I had the same experience as you mentioned with the India thing. They have "no clue" what you're trying to communicate to them. I called Symantec with an issue and all I kept getting in response was to run LiveUpdate. I kept telling them that my LiveUpdate was up to date and that wasn't the issue. I think I had 8 emails back and forth with no help coming out of it--what idiots! When I called Symantec HQ, I told them that they're no longer the only game in town and that they would be losing customers if they continue to provide "garbage" Tech Support from India. They thanked me for my input and gave me 6 months additional updates.