What The Hacking Of Symanetec Means To You.
The biggest problem in the tech sector is not supply chain problems, environmental regulations, lack of creativity or even limited battery life. The biggest problem in the tech sector, like so many industries, is hubris. Hubris, the pride that leads one to believe that they are invincible, flawless, destined for greatness/market dominance/perfection, is the true scourge of the tech sector. Why? Quite simply it is the vainest form of hubris wherein the largest technology companies come to believe that because they have hired the absolute best and brightest tech school graduates, that the pool is empty, no other geniuses exist. Virtually every major tech company believes that they have the individuals and teams who are the most skilled and most creative. That belief makes them blind to the creative programming geniuses who work outside the corporate structure.
Symantec was so blinded when hackers cracked into their servers and downloaded the source code for Symantec’s pcAnywhere and Norton Antivirus.
Erroneously believing their servers were impenetrable and their source codes were secure, Symantec was surprised when a hacker affiliated with Anonymous stole the codes to two of Symantec’s biggest products. After a failed extortion attempt, the hacker released the coding for pcAnywhere for download through Torrent. PcAnywhere is a program that allows you to control your home and computer remotely. While the publication of this product’s coding is not as devastating as the coding for Norton Antivirus would be, it is still a significant setback for Symantec.
Source code is the root of a program, the language which defines how a program or groups of programs work. Because Symantec created its products to make the company money, their source codes have been a carefully guarded industry secret. What the hack of Symantec and the subsequent distribution of the source code for one or both of the hacked products means to consumers is that their Symantec programs are potentially vulnerable. If hackers leak the Norton Antivirus source code, hackers and virus programmers will likely create viruses specifically designed to work around Norton Antivirus. With the source code in hand, hackers and programmers may find vulnerabilities to exploit and design programs that use those vulnerabilities to gain access to information on your computer.
It is hubris to believe that any computer is invulnerable to attack from direct hacking or through a computer virus. Symantec was a leader in Internet security and their servers were still hacked in order to get the source code. Having the source code makes it easier to exploit the weaknesses in a system, but with a large population of intelligent, bored, underemployed, computer-savvy genius anarchists trying to break a system, they are bound to succeed eventually. It was hubris on the part of Symantec and other software companies to believe otherwise.
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