Symantec Says Antivirus Software Is Dead?

Brian Dye, senior vice president for information security of computer security giant Symantec, the company behind Norton Antivirus software, has told the Wall Street Journal that Antivirus [software] “is dead,” and that “We [Symantec] don’t think of antivirus as a moneymaker in any way.”

What did he just say? Did a senior vice president from the company that just invented commercial antivirus software for PCs just say that Antivirus software should be put out to pasture? Antivirus is dead? Symantec brings in $1.6 billion dollars a year and 40% of that comes from Norton Antivirus software.

It looks like the way we protect our computers needs to change. Mr. Dye estimates traditional antivirus software catches just 45% of cyberattacks and that alternative forms of protection now must be used to block or simply just detect that an intrusion has happened. This means that Norton isn’t shutting down and closing up shop, but rather changing the way they go about computer protection. Brian Dye said the company is now moving its business towards “detecting and responding” to attacks, rather than simply trying to protect against them. Norton is a bit behind the ball on that front, but in recent years we have witnessed Symantec’s Norton security suite has evolve beyond antivirus software.

Norton 360 for example helps protect from viruses, spam, identity theft and social media dangers on Facebook. It also includes a password manager, a 2-way firewall, parental controls, spam blocking and anti-phishing technology. Other traditional antivirus makers such as McAfee, Intel Corp.’s security unit, have moved in the same direction. Michael Fey, McAfee’s chief technology officer, says there is typically a two- to three-year lag on developing the technology Symantec seeks to create. “They haven’t been part of the thought-leader group for some time,” Mr. Fey says.

The first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem and it looks like Norton just made a very public announcement.