
Hacker says to release full Norton Antivirus code on Tuesday - jhack
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/14/uk-symantec-hacker-idUKTRE80D09T20120114
======
eps
Well, hopefully someone will now devise a way of removing thedamn thing from a
machine with one-click and without multiple reboots.

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BasDirks
Are there no infosec folks on HN, or are they just lurking? There are about 3
worthwhile comments in this thread, and yes I do realize mine isn't
contributing, but I would love to hear more on this subject from the
knowledgeable.

~~~
mkr-hn
Not much to say until the release either happens or doesn't.

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biot

      > A hacker who goes by the name of 'Yama Tough' threatened Saturday
      > to release next week the full source code for Symantec Corp's
      > flagship Norton Antivirus software.
    

Unfortunately, Saturday could not be reached for comment but Friday and Sunday
pledged support for the beleaguered day.

~~~
AgentConundrum
What's the proper grammar for this? It seems like a perfectly acceptable order
for the words, but you're right that there's some flow missing. Commas
surrounding 'Saturday' perhaps?

~~~
chrismsnz
I'm guessing "...threatened on Saturday..." is probably a better way to phrase
it

~~~
AgentConundrum
It's a better way to phrase it, certainly, but that wasn't my question. I've
heard reporters use the original phrasing (i.e. "threatened Saturday"), so I
consider it correct, just with incorrect punctuation. I was trying to figure
out what the proper punctuation would be without changing the words.

This is part of a more general problem I have with being able to write the way
I speak. I don't think I have terrible grammar when writing something
relatively formal, in a "written tone" rather than a "spoken tone", but when I
make comments on reddit or HN, I've noticed I have a general inability to also
make my writing grammatically correct. I also use a lot of parentheses,
because I tend to talk in tangents, and that's the only way I can really write
it that makes sense.

It was an intellectual curiosity, nothing more.

~~~
FreakLegion
The original and the version with the added preposition are both correct. If
there were a real ambiguity you'd favor the preposition, but that isn't the
case here.

~~~
waitwhat
British English requires the preposition.

~~~
FreakLegion
It doesn't. You can easily see this by searching British media for the phrase
"said Thursday" or the like. It's the same construction.

[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&...](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=M7w&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-
US%3Aofficial&q=site%3Awww.guardian.co.uk+%22said+thursday%22&oq=site%3Awww.guardian.co.uk+%22said+thursday%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=se&gs_upl=6824l11775l0l11897l22l21l0l16l0l0l339l832l1.3.0.1l5l0)

------
jnazario
last i saw symantec is saying this is old code:

[http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/247376/symante...](http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/247376/symantec_confirms_leak_of_source_code_for_old_enterprise_antivirus_products.html)

and not currently running products: '"Symantec can confirm that a segment of
its source code used in two of our older enterprise products has been
accessed, one of which has been discontinued. The code involved is four and
five years old," said Cris Paden, the company's senior manager for corporate
communications.'

~~~
getsat
It'll still be interesting to see if there's any specific code/comments in
there for the government-produced trojans/backdoors that are allowed through.

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JumpCrisscross
"The hacker says all the data was taken from Indian government servers."

But hey, we can trust the supreme competence of the bureaucracy with our
secrets.

------
lelele
I wonder how companies protect their source code from leaking. Doesn't every
programmer have access to the full source tree? Any disgruntled former
programmer employee ought to be able to dump the source of a product for the
public to see.

~~~
dangrossman
Companies like Microsoft and Google employ several hundred interns each
summer... college students with little commitment to the company and access to
the source code of real products. Kids! Yet it's not considered a problem.

> I wonder how companies protect their source code from leaking

The prospect of being bankrupted by a civil suit or thrown in prison is enough
to stop most people.

~~~
wonderercat
> The prospect of being bankrupted by a civil suit or thrown in prison is
> enough to stop most people.

Yes, but... if you're good enough to be hired by these companies, leaking
source code without being traced isn't going to be hard for you. I've thought
about this before and I'm actually surprised it doesn't happen more often.

~~~
dangrossman
If you're working at these companies you also know they have lots of people
like you who will be working to track down any trace of who leaked the code.
Are you willing to risk going to prison then being legally banned from
touching a PC when you get out?

~~~
weaksauce
Also, you have little to gain from doing it even if you don't get caught. It's
probably much more cathartic to blast them in a blog post than it is to
anonymously release source code of an outdated/discontinued product.
Especially since source is only readable to x people and a blog is readable to
y. With X<<y.

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charliesome
I'm looking forward to downloading this and having a look through - I often
find stuff like this interesting.

~~~
chorola
me，2！

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latchkey
I can't remember the last time I used a Norton product. Why is this big news?

~~~
zheng
I can't remember the last time I used an i[Pod,Pad,Phone], but that doesn't
make stories about them unimportant.

------
levifig
Oh cool… I've always wanted to know how that works. Right? No.

Anti-virus software is like drugs: they'll preload a little quality free thing
on your new computer and then remind you (every two hours) when your 60-day
trial has expired AND YOUR COMPUTER IS AT RISK OH NOES KABOOM!!! Then, they'll
gladly charge you for that feeling of safety when no software can protect
against human stupidity, which is the root cause of most virus infections.

In other news, the world has moved past Norton and you should get a Mac.

~~~
baby
> you should get a Mac.

but you lost credibility way before saying that anyway.

