Hacker says to release full Norton Antivirus code on Tuesday

Well, hopefully someone will now devise a way of removing thedamn thing from a machine with one-click and without multiple reboots.

Are there no infosec folks on HN, or are they just lurking? There are about 3 worthwhile comments in this thread, and yes I do realize mine isn't contributing, but I would love to hear more on this subject from the knowledgeable.

<p><pre><code> &#62; A hacker who goes by the name of 'Yama Tough' threatened Saturday &#62; to release next week the full source code for Symantec Corp's &#62; flagship Norton Antivirus software. </code></pre> Unfortunately, Saturday could not be reached for comment but Friday and Sunday pledged support for the beleaguered day.

last i saw symantec is saying this is old code:<p><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/247376/symantec_confirms_leak_of_source_code_for_old_enterprise_antivirus_products.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/247376/symante...</a><p>and not currently running products: '"Symantec can confirm that a segment of its source code used in two of our older enterprise products has been accessed, one of which has been discontinued. The code involved is four and five years old," said Cris Paden, the company's senior manager for corporate communications.'

"The hacker says all the data was taken from Indian government servers."<p>But hey, we can trust the supreme competence of the bureaucracy with our secrets.

I wonder how companies protect their source code from leaking. Doesn't every programmer have access to the full source tree? Any disgruntled former programmer employee ought to be able to dump the source of a product for the public to see.

I'm looking forward to downloading this and having a look through - I often find stuff like this interesting.

I can't remember the last time I used a Norton product. Why is this big news?

Oh cool… I've always wanted to know how that works. Right? No.<p>Anti-virus software is like drugs: they'll preload a little quality free thing on your new computer and then remind you (every two hours) when your 60-day trial has expired AND YOUR COMPUTER IS AT RISK OH NOES KABOOM!!! Then, they'll gladly charge you for that feeling of safety when no software can protect against human stupidity, which is the root cause of most virus infections.<p>In other news, the world has moved past Norton and you should get a Mac.