Currently the internet is a buzz with news, rumour and speculation around vulnerabilities in Symantec products.  Given that Symantec software is used to secure many of the world's PCs, it is quite a concern!

What happened is, the Symantec source code (the secret sauce of software) was stolen back in 2006. Computerworld has reported that the code is now in the hands of a number hacker groups. One of those is “Anonymous” a group which claims to be behind attacks on USA government websites.

Symantec has released a warning that some 2006 versions of its products are at risk.  The official release reads that Antivirus cusotmers will be safe so long as they have been updating their antivirus software regularly.  But if you use PC Anywhere then you need to load updates.  They say due to the age of the exposed source Symantec anti-virus or endpoint security customers – including those running Norton products – should not be in any increased danger of cyber-attacks resulting from this incident”.  It then goes on to say that the current and all prior versions of PCAnywhere are at increased risk. “Our current analysis shows that all PCAnywhere 12.0, 12.1 and 12.5 customers are at increased risk, as well as customers using prior versions of the product”.

What should you do if you use Symantec PCAnywhere?  Symantec have released a number of patches for the PCAnywhere product range along with install instructions.  You should follow these instructions as soon as possible, or contact Kinetics for assistance. 

For PC’s, Laptops and Servers covered by a Kinetics Kare contracts of Ready Reaction, Core Fundamentals or Total Kare.  Kinetics will identify contracted devices with PCAnywhere installed and then respond based on the contract level.