Cyber shift: Competitors question Symantec's decision to sell cyber tools, not just services

摘要

The long-standing practice for cybersecurity vendors McAfee, Sophos and Symantec has been to own and operate thousands of malware spotting computers around the world called honey pots. When a malware author stumbles into a honey pot, he thinks he's tapping into an actual Web server or file transfer protocol site, but in fact he's being watched by a cyber sensor. The malware is transferred to a lab, where analysts try to reverse engineer it as the first step toward alerting government agencies, corporations or consumers. Symantec of Mountain View, Calif., has surprised its competitors with a plan to turn that tradition around 180 degrees. In February, the company announced it would package versions of its honey pot sensors and automated analytic tools and begin marketing them to U.S., government agencies, NATO and major corporations. Customers would be able to sense malware on their own and conduct analyses in labs set up for them by Symantec.