Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Results 21 to 29 of 29

Thread: Symantec held info about a big cyberthreat for hours after spotting it ....

  1. #21
    You are making assumptions that it would only cost Symantec a couple of seconds. This is not at all the case. They didn't find out about this as quickly as they did because they have offices in foreign countries. They found out about it quickly because they offer a service where they monitor thousands of different areas of the internet looking for patterns in the traffic that resemble attacks and other malicious activity. When they find these patterns they have a highly paid analyst dig into the issue further. Once the analysts have determined exactly what the issue is, they give the information to the customers who have paid to support the service. Along with telling them about the "attack" symantec also gives recommendations on how to deal with the issue.

    Tony's analogy is dead on. The service that symantec is providing costs thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain. Why is it that you think you should be privy to this information, for free, that cost symantec so much money to gather?

    If symantec were just to give this information away, they would not be able to continue gathering that data to begin with for much longer, mainly because it would be a situation where they would lose mass quantities of money.
    Just because you don't understand my perspective, please don't just start claiming I'm making assumptions here...

    To clarify my point and to put it a little differantly:

    All I'm saying is that; Since Symantec already had the information, AND were already planning on giving it to the public FOR FREE (Like they eventually did) - is that it would of seemed a better PR tactic (IMHO) to give it to the people a few hours earlier then they did so that people could of been prepaired. Instead of after the fact as if to say 'well now that its to late heres the info you needed to-bad for you for not paying us'...

    How is it costing them thousands and thousands of dollars to send out a notification that they had PRE-PREPAIRED already - only to send it out a few hours ealier then they did. (Since they already planned on giving it to the public for free anyway)...

    (Which btw is why the anology was wrong, although like i did say - I see where his point was coming from, so you don't have to explain it to me... But for it to be accurate Jaguarr would have to both be giving cars to all their paying customers and then going back and giving whats left on the lot to all the non-paying customers - which we all know they don't do)

    Which is where my comment came from, that it would only take them a few seconds - as thats all the time it takes to post a pre-prepaired statement that they plan on posting later anyway...

    And Yes I know it was 'pre-prepaired' because what they released to the public was nothing more then a copy of the information half of what they did send out to their customers hours and hours earlier... Which again I don't have a problem with them giving MORE of the info to their customers - nor do I have a problem with them giving it to their customers first... As you says thats just part of the business...

    RRP

  2. #22
    AO Security for Non-Geeks tonybradley's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    830
    I think if that were the case that nobody would pay for the service. If you know that you- and the rest of the world- are going to get the same information in another 15 minutes or so it might affect your decision to spend tens of thousands of dollars per year to get the information faster.

    I can see your point that IF they plan on releasing the information anyway, why not release it earlier when its of more use- but I believe that part of the reason for announcing the data after the fact was to highlight what you COULD have had if you were a paying customer. In other words, a sort of public pat-on-the-back for marketing purposes to say "hey- if you HAD been a paying customer you would have gotten this data in time for it to be useful."

    I don't KNOW that- its just a hypothesis. I just think that people getting information for free from companies that invested a lot of money to get it should not complain about how or when they got the information.

  3. #23
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    11
    If they are going to make more money off of home and small business users they should fix the little issues with NAV2003 and others most likely. If you are forced to resubscribe, follow the link first and then close that box. Then NAV will ask you if you updated your subscription and hit yes. Without even checking your update subsciption status you should have another year of free updates. That should save some of us a wipe and reload of Windows.

  4. #24
    Really shows you how most companies think about money first and then the customers.
    Welcome to customer service of the 21st century.
    To look into the eyes of a Wolf
    Is to look into ones own soul

  5. #25
    Hard to believe that a nine-month old article can cause this much hoo-haw.

    I find it hard to understand why someone wants to lay the Slammer at the feet of Symantec. The vulnerability was announced and a patch was available almost a year ahead of the release of the Slammer worm. So, you know where that puts the blame.

    That Symantec may have seen or detected some evidence of the worm's travels early on doesn't mean they are responsible for the results. Chances are, they thought most people had patched their systems and were following their standard procedures. Hell, none of the "experts" had a clue how virulent Slammer would become.

    An hour earlier or an hour later wouldn't have changed anything for me. My systems were patched. We got probed and a couple student laptops that weren't protected got nailed.

  6. #26
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    707
    quote :: " Hard to believe that a nine-month old article can cause this much hoo-haw.

    I find it hard to understand why someone wants to lay the Slammer at the feet of Symantec. The vulnerability was announced and a patch was available almost a year ahead of the release of the Slammer worm. So, you know where that puts the blame. "

    I was in no way trying to blame or trying to hold Symantec Responsible. I just wanted people to read the article and make their suggestions and own opinions. I believe that everyone is allowed to share their opinion. I know that some of you may have been offended by it oh well that's how the world goes... No wonder why there's world always gonna be the way it is ... Never going forward but always going backwards ... But I guess that rapier57 never took into thinking that maybe when people apply patches they dont always work. Patches seem to make fix problems but create more .. As for patches for MS I kinda starting to see a pattern.
    1] Vulnerability is found
    2] Virus is created to take advantage of the Vulnerability
    3] MS finds out about it
    4] They create a patch ,, so people lay back thinking all is well
    -a] patch works well
    -b] patch is total garbage and crashes computer system oh well,, time for backup plan ...
    -c] they fix the patch
    5] Someone changes the code to the virus
    6] And the pattern repeats again and again ...
    Operation Cyberslam
    \"I\'ve noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born.\" Author Unknown
    Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit
    Proyecto Ututo EarthCam

  7. #27
    Banned
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    877
    Ummmm... thats kinda outta order don't you think? Usually vulnerabilities get discovered and thats when patches usually come out. The malware usually comes out a few days... if not week later afterwards when peaple start to study it, it become well known, & then peaple give the source code to exploits for the vulnerabilities so someone can C&P it into worms and things.

    I have very rarely (if ever) seen worms and trojans exploit vulnerabilities before a patch has been made.

  8. #28
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    707
    Thanks for pointing that out TheSpecialist ... Guess I learned something today to do a little more research ... Oops
    Operation Cyberslam
    \"I\'ve noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born.\" Author Unknown
    Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit
    Proyecto Ututo EarthCam

  9. #29
    The Doctor Und3ertak3r's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Posts
    2,744
    Welcome to customer service of the 21st century.
    I don't think that it is a disease exclusive to the 21st century..

    Buy a computer from wallies world then go to Sids Super computers and expect advice on how to use it..
    When A retailer (provider of a product or service) offers "Free" advice, It is not free.. never is.. never has been.. "Free" information is given on the expectation that you will buy products and or services from the retailer.. The "Free" information is not the complete and absolute information that you will need.. The guys who have the larger accounts get that info..
    Who gets the realy good freebies?.. the customer who spends the most money in the store..
    That is known a business!

    If they are going to make more money off of home and small business users they should fix the little issues with NAV2003 and others most likely. If you are forced to resubscribe, follow the link first and then close that box. Then NAV will ask you if you updated your subscription and hit yes. Without even checking your update subsciption status you should have another year of free updates. That should save some of us a wipe and reload of Windows.
    isn't that what they have done with NAV2004? (only hearsay for me on the PA requirment)

    My own suspicion is that Symantec didn't consider the Domestic "multi Use" a serious factor until recently..perhaps they now see the domestic market as comparable to the Comercial market.. ..
    do a little bit of maths.. average home compared to business use.. how many pcs in commercial use and in home use... do a then and now.. do the sums guys.. visit your Statisticion on the web.. ..

    And remember my earlier comment regarding slammer.. "Who was most vulnerable" I wasn't .. and many of the whiners wern't either

    Cheers
    "Consumer technology now exceeds the average persons ability to comprehend how to use it..give up hope of them being able to understand how it works." - Me http://www.cybercrypt.co.nr

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •