Ask any IT administrator about the cloud, especially cloud-based applications, and chances are you’ll sense some unease. They see its potential in terms of cost-effectiveness and agility, but express some concerns in terms of security. At Symantec we envision a future, cloud-centric world, where clouds are safe and our solutions provide the protection and control customers need across both public and private clouds.

In this vision, many clouds will be the norm. The user experience will involve a seamless interaction of cloud-based services with constant access to what is needed, when needed, without security concerns. Whether it is access to email archives, sales presentations, or financial reports, secure cloud-based services will enable customers to be more productive wherever they may be.

There are some challenges to overcome before we get to the point where all companies will feel safe migrating enormous petabytes of...

By Rob Greer, Vice President & General Manager, Enterprise Mobility, Symantec

Over the last few years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of new mobile operating systems. The latest example is Microsoft’s announcement today of the availability of Windows Phone 8. At Symantec, we work to ensure that our customers are able to protect and manage their data, apps, devices and users on all mobile platforms. As such, we’re pleased to announce that Symantec Mobile Management Suite – a single solution that covers mobile device management, mobile application management, and mobile security – now provides support for the new Windows Phone 8 platform.

As users start to access corporate email and other resources with their new Windows Phone 8 devices, businesses will need to protect these activities. The mobile device management component of the suite,...

By visiting which type of website are you more likely to get infected with malware?  A religious site or an adult site?  I’ve been asking that question to computer security professionals for almost a year now.  If you’ve read the Internet Security Threat report version 17 you know the answer. It’s religious sites.  We discovered that a higher percentage of religious sites have been hacked into and loaded up with malware by the bad guys than adult sites.  

I like to quiz people on this one, because it doesn’t meet expectations.  Some people sense a set up in the question, but most answer that you’re more likely to get infected on a adult website.  The real message I try to leave behind with...

When the words “big data” and “security” are used together in a sentence, usually the word “problem” or “concern” is in there too. Security is often thought of as a prohibitor to using big data, since data of all types – including confidential – are being mixed together to generate analytics which can be used for better decision making. But while there are concerns, big data can actually be harnessed to improve security.

The job of the defender is to protect against an infinite number of attacks. However, a defender will always have a limited amount of resources with which to do this. The real job of the security practitioner is to prioritize remediation efforts by risk, so that the limited resources can be focused on addressing the greatest risks to the business.

Most security organizations have anywhere between five and hundreds of different security technologies deployed in their enterprise environments....