Symantec Urges Customers to Disable pcAnywhere

The breach of Symantec source code by an Indian hacking group a few weeks ago was all but brushed off by the security giant. Symantec went on the record saying that the leaked code is, "so old that current out-of-the-box security settings will suffice against any possible threats that might materialise as a result of this incident." 

However, in a posting on their website yesterday and an accompanying technical white paper, Symantec suggests that pcAnywhere customers are at a heightened risk and advises users to "disable the product until Symantec releases a final set of software updates that resolve currently known vulnerability risks." Customers could be at risk for "man in the middle" attacks where an unauthorized person accesses pcAnywhere transactions and intercepts data as it travels from its source to its destination. These attacks are more likely because the blueprints for Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton SystemWorks (Norton Utilities and Norton GoBack) and pcAnywhere were accessed in the breach. The information contained in these blueprints makes it easier to identify and exploit software vulnerabilities. 

Symantec reps say that there are 50,000 people using the standalone version of pcAnywhere along with an unknown number of users who received the product bundled within other security packages.

Almost 1/3 of Americans Own an E-Reader or a Tablet

According to new research released by the good people at The Pew Internet Project,  "the share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period." This brings the total number of Americans who own at least one tablet or e-reader to 29%.

This study puts solid numbers on the tablet and e-reader market growth speculations. It is becoming more and more important for organizations to look into how they are going to integrate tablet and, more broadly,  mobile security into their enterprise DLP strategy. 

Two of the largest enterprise DLP vendors,Symantec and Websense, are introducing a DLP plug-in for tablets this year. The concept for tablets is pretty basic and shared for the most part across vendors. It works like an endpoint monitor that views and classifies information as it flows from a tablet to a web or cloud application. If the content is deemed appropriate it is allowed to reach its destination, and if the content is sensitive it will either notify DLP administrators, block the content or a combination of both.