Symantec, which has been making antivirus products for decades (including Norton, the first piece of software most people would try to remove from a new PC), is getting out of the antivirus game, sort of.

Brian Dye, Symantec's senior vice president for information security, told the Wall Street Journal that in Synamtec’s view, antivirus is dead. "We don't think of antivirus as a moneymaker in any way," he stated. That doesn't mean the company is completely abandoning Norton, but it is heading in a new direction.

Basically, instead of primarily focusing on keeping the walls secure, Symantec is more interested in what to do when (not if) cybercriminals break through.


The new approach is of course more complex as well as more holistic, and it will take the form of two managed services: Symantec Managed Security Services-Advanced Threat Protection (MSS-ATP) and Symantec Advanced Threat Protection Solution.

The next step in the process for Symantec is developing the MSS-ATP solution, which is “a managed service that significantly reduces the time it takes to detect, prioritize and respond to security incidents by producing integration between its endpoint security and third-party network security vendors’ products.”

Symantec is also partnering with others in the industry, such as Check Point Software Technologies, Palo Alto Networks, and Sourcefire in an Advanced Threat Protection Alliance to beef up its security offerings.

This new, powerful Advanced Threat Protection Solution is designed to provide comprehensive end-to-end security and will begin beta testing within six months. The company plans to bring a generally available product to market within a year.

We wish Symantec and other security companies engaging in similar research great success in finding new ways to keep our systems safe.