Symantec November 29, 2007January 6, 2017 FMD Tom Brown’s reassuring perspective, here. There are no guarantees, but I’m hanging on to my shares. If I did not already have a ton, I’d likely have bought more. Brown is appears substantially more sophisticated than the analyst whose negative report sent the stock down 10%. SYMANTEC First all the responses I received defending Symantec. Okay. Now here are some of the other responses to yesterday’s comment: Richard Feinberg: ‘All I can say is that I HATE, HATE, HATE their software. The damn stuff is completely insidious and worms its way into the guts of your computer, forever acting maliciously, and often surreptitiously. I hope you will share your tale of woe. I have heard others . . .’ Karl Plenge: ‘Boy, was your comment about Symantec timely! Monday I spent over four hours on ‘chat’ with them – was disconnected twice, resulting once in a wait of over an hour to get reconnected to a ‘tech’ (I use the term loosely) – and was passed around from person to person for the whole four hours without once getting an answer to anything. Finally they stated they were ‘escalating’ me again, would I please wait…and after 15-20 minutes a tech sent me a message saying that since I hadn’t typed anything in 10 minutes, they were hanging up on me – and did as I furiously typed a response so that they would not disconnect me! I saved the transcript and I am going to try to find someone important there I can send it to (yeah, I know, good luck on that). I have felt up until now and still do feel that their software is a good product, but I will certainly be looking for a new solution when my subscription to Symantec is up!’ Sam Kahn: ‘I will never buy another Norton product and had been a customer for many years. They have an incredible amount of chutzpah. In 2006, I bought and installed Norton Internet Security which is a combination of several pieces of software, most of which does not have to be updated every year. In 2007, I bought Norton AntiVirus which does require an annual update. This uninstalled all of Internet Security. There was nothing on the box that said that it would uninstall all of Internet Security as opposed to just the AntiVirus component. I wrote emails asking to get my software reinstated. Finally, I wrote to Symantec’s CEO and the response was that I needed to buy a new Internet Security. I will do just that in 2008 but it won’t be from Norton.’ Chris Petersen: ‘You write: ‘Symantec, publisher of the Norton software line, is just the worst company that ever incorporated.’ Well, duh! I have been using Trend Micro for anti-virus for a number of years and have been reasonably happy with them. But being concerned about security, I offer the following – particularly where there is significant risk should security be breached: #1 Use one computer for general browsing and surfing the network. Use this computer to install applications, play games, etc. #2 Buy a second computer, a Macintosh. Only install required software from reputable suppliers (Apple, etc.). Only use this computer for the secure transactions where loss of information could have significant value. Don’t do general surfing. Enable encryption on your home directory should your computer be lost or stolen. Use Keychain to store hard-to-remember passwords as needed. Secure the computer login with a complex password (no dictionary words). Or here’s a second option for those who only want one computer: Buy a Macintosh. Install Windows in one partition using Boot Camp. Boot to Windows for #1 uses above. Boot to the OS X partition for #2 above. This process is admittedly for the paranoid – which one should be when managing assets on the net.’ ☞ Now you’re scaring me. COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS ‘I do count my blessings, but then I end up counting those of others who have more and better blessings, and that pisses me off.’ – Bob Mankoff New Yorker cartoon caption