1980 to 1989: The Rise of Personal Computers and Personal Software - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 212

business model of growth by acquisition. One of the important acquisitions was
the Peter Norton Computing Company in 1990. Norton Utilities was a well-re-
garded suite of applications that tuned up personal computers and eliminated junk.
Symantec had developed antivirus software for the Mac platform before its ac-
quisition of Norton. But the Norton name was so highly regarded in the industry
that Symantec released its PC antivirus package under the name Norton AntiVirus,
even though it had been internally developed at Symantec.
Because antivirus protection is technically sophisticated and must deal with
moving targets, Symantec established a formal antivirus research group with about
400 personnel. Although consumer antivirus packages are perhaps best known,
Symantec also has corporate and enterprise security packages as a result of ac-
quiring Veritas. Symantec and the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei
have also created a joint company for cybersecurity research and analysis named
Huawei Symantec.
Symantec is a good company for business school case studies because it
changed directions several times. Its unique “six pack” sales program, which in-
volved almost every single employee, is also a novel approach that merits business
school attention.
Not all reviews of Symantec have been favorable. For example, in an attack on
the New York Times software and network, only a few of the threats were detected
by Symantec tools. Symantec itself was hacked in 2012, which is embarrassing for
a security company.
Symantec had acquired VeriSign, which supposedly verified websites and is-
sued security certificates. After VeriSign was hacked and had some data stolen in
2010, the validity of these services came into question. Also, VeriSign was criti-
cized for delays in reporting the hack.
A final issue with Symantec is that it has not received very high reviews from
consumers or journals for customer support.
Some of the security attacks and issues against Symantec illustrate an important
point. Hackers and computer viruses are growing more sophisticated and therefore
antivirus companies need to work hard to stay ahead of the game.