Anonymous claims to have released source code of Symantec's pcAnywhere

The hacker group had earlier released emails between a hacker and a person said to be a Symantec representative
  • John Ribeiro (IDG News Service)
  • — 07 February, 2012 18:17

Hacker group Anonymous claimed late Monday that the source code of Symantec's pcAnywhere had been uploaded on The Pirate Bay site.

Symantec could not immediately comment on whether the hackers had indeed released the source code of its product. "It happened so recently that we're still in the process of analyzing and won't be able to confirm until the morning," a spokesman said via email.

Earlier on Monday, an email string posted on Pastebin referred to negotiations over payment for the source code between one Sam Thomas, purported to be a Symantec employee, but using a Gmail mail id, and a person named Yamatough. The name of the hacker is similar to the Twitter handle of YamaTough in Mumbai who is associated with the hacker group, Lords of Dharmaraja, that had earlier claimed it had access to the source code of some Symantec products.

"We will pay you $50,000.00 USD total," Thomas said in an e-mail earlier this month. He however wanted assurances that the hacker would not release the code after payment, and offered to pay $2,500 a month for the first three months, with payments starting the next week.

"After the first three months you have to convince us you have destroyed the code before we pay the balance. We are trusting you to keep your end of the bargain," he added.

Yamatough rejected the offer stating that "our offshore people wont let us securely get the money because they wont process amounts less than 50k a shot".

By late Monday, Yamatough gave Symantec 10 minutes to decide which way it would go. "After that two of your codes fly to the moon PCAnywhere and Norton Antivirus totaling 2350MB in size (rar)," the hacker said. "We can't make a decision in ten minutes.  We need more time," Thomas replied.  

Symantec said the offer of $50,000 to the hacker was part of a law enforcement investigation.

The company did not however disclose the name of the investigative agency. "Given that the investigation is still ongoing, we are not going to disclose the law enforcement agencies involved and have no additional information to provide," the company said in a statement.

Symantec said that in January an individual claiming to be part of Anonymous attempted to extort a payment from Symantec in exchange for not publicly posting stolen Symantec source code they claimed to have in their possession. "Symantec conducted an internal investigation into this incident and also contacted law enforcement given the attempted extortion and apparent theft of intellectual property," it added.

Symantec admitted in January that its network was compromised and source code stolen, according to reports, backing away from earlier claims that a third party had been attacked.

Tags: cybercrime, legal, security, symantec

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Clearswift tips: Guidelines for introducing and policing an effective IT Policy

1. Make it clear that the policy is not about playing ‘Big Brother’ but to ensure the security of employees, company information and data and to safeguard the company’s reputation.
2. Invest time to get buy-in from managers and their teams.
3. Convey the message of flexibility – with regard to social media, it is not about blocking staff usage but working in everyone’s interests to ensure that threats are contained.
4. Introduce a regular company-wide training programme that everyone attends at regular intervals throughout the year, not merely as part of an induction programme.
5. Within the training programme make sure that there are specific examples to demonstrate each rule or regulation, and that there is a clear explanation of the dangers of casual or careless talk on social networking sites. Again use examples, employees need to understand the consequences of raising a throwaway comment that has negative connotations for the business, as much as they need to be aware of dangers of making a more direct but ill-considered attack on a competitor, regulator or even a fellow colleague. They need to be clearly advised on any impact on the company and/or legal action or inquires that may be raised as a result.
6. Alert employees to any changes in policy through regular clear communication.
7. Reinforce the operational policy guidelines regularly, cover everything from blogging to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
8. Ensure that the rules are fair and that they apply throughout the business.
9. Enforce the rules – if there is a deliberate or malicious contravening, disciplinary action needs to be taken. A policy isn’t worth having if it is seen to be lax and unenforced.
10. Review the policy regularly to ensure you keep up to date with new systems and technology.

Phil Vasic is Regional Director, APAC, at Clearswift, the software security company www.clearswift.com
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