Re: Symantec goes Cannibalistic

[Nick FitzGerald <nick () virus-l demon co uk>]

"Rob Slade" to "security curmudgeon":

> > One other product appeared in December of 1990 of which I had heard 
> > rumors. Its release foreshadowed a new direction the antivirus industry 
> > would take in 1991. The product was Norton AntiVirus. 
>
> I am Peter of Nort.  Resistance is futile.  Prepare to be assimilated.
>
> Over the next year or two I believe Symantec ate about 18 companies and Central 
> Point ate a dozen.  Then (sometime in 92 or 3?) Symantec ate CP.  Eventually I 
> figured that Symantec had absorbed roughly 45 other AV products--without 
> noticeable improvement in their AV tech.

I suspect that the bulk of those products were bought for their 
userbases rather than for their IP...

> (The fact that Peter, almost up to the day Symantec renamed their recently 
> purchased PC AV proggie "Norton AV," had been going around saying that 
> computer viruses were an urban legend, was hilarious.)

FWIW, the original source is attributed here:

   http://www.textfiles.com/virus/virusdoc.vir

   ...

   (Editor's note: Computer "viruses" -- self-propagating programs that
   spread from one machine to another and from one disk to another --
   have been very much in the news. This file contains virus-related
   stories carried by Online Today's electronic edition from April
   through November 1988.)  

   ...

   THREAT OF "VIRUS" BLOWN OUT OF PROPORTION, NORTON AND SYSOPS SAY

     (April 10)

   The threat of so-called computer "viruses" has been vastly
   overrated, according to software guru Peter Norton and two
   CompuServe forum administrators.  

   "We're dealing with an urban myth," Norton told Insight magazine.
   "It's like the story of alligators in the sewers of New York.
   Everyone knows about them, but no one's ever seen them. Typically,
   these stories come up every three to five years."    

though I have no idea what "Online Today" is/was.


Regards,

Nick FitzGerald

_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.