To our stakeholders:

Today, as professionals, consumers, and citizens across the world, we find ourselves facing rapidly changing social and technological circumstances. Some - such as the increasing integration of new technologies across all aspects of our lives - are yielding greater opportunities and freedoms than ever before in the ways we live, connect, and work. Others, unfortunately, are increasing the security and economic risks we confront.

For example, the number of malware attacks blocked by Symantec grew a staggering 81 percent in 2011. Our groundbreaking study on the price of cybercrime found that, each year, such activity costs society $388 billion in financial losses and lost time. Every second, 14 adults become a victim of cybercrime. In addition, electronic information is growing at a staggering rate. That’s your information – your financial data, your family photos, your small business’s proprietary information.

As the world’s largest company dedicated to protecting the world’s people and information, Symantec is positioned at the intersection of many of these trends. We are also uniquely qualified to address the growing need for information protection that supports rather than hinders collaboration and access to cloud-based tools and resources. We view the protection of information as a fundamental element of corporate responsibility in the digital age.

Similarly, equitable treatment of our workforce and ethical engagement with the world in which we operate are essential aspects of being a successful and sought-after employer, partner, and solutions provider. This focus on enhancing our competitiveness informed our corporate responsibility priorities in FY12. In addition to relentlessly protecting our customers across multiple platforms while upholding privacy considerations, we achieved many other notable accomplishments in three categories critical to our corporate responsibility strategy – Our People, The World, and Your Information.

Our People

In FY12, we continued to promote developing a diverse work force including the participation of women. We solidified our adherence to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP), with the establishment of a WEP key stakeholder committee to guide future initiatives. While the percentage of women in our workforce remained constant at 27.6 percent in FY11 and FY12, our commitment to grow the participation of women in our workforce and company leadership remains strong.

Our workforce needs to be as broad and diverse as the markets we serve. In FY12, Symantec hosted its first Diversity Week where employees from around the globe participated in workshops and webinars on cultural differences and were encouraged to open their minds and think about perspectives that are different from their own.

The World

We continued our commitment to human rights and responsible sourcing with the roll-out of our Global Supply Chain Code of Conduct to our tier one suppliers in FY12, and developed a similarly robust code for our broader universe of supply chain partners. We also aligned internal training and auditing practices with the company’s human rights policies and the principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition, we remain one of the 45 companies participating in the UNGC LEAD Program – signaling our commitment to the principles of human rights, environmental protection, and business ethics embedded in the Global Compact framework.

Our workforce needs to be as broad and diverse as the markets we serve. In FY12, Symantec hosted its first Diversity Week where employees from around the globe participated in workshops and webinars on cultural differences and were encouraged to open their minds and think about perspectives that are different from their own.

Additionally, Symantec invested nearly $24 million in charitable initiatives – more than $19 million of which was in the form of software donations and benefitted more than 20,000 nonprofits during FY12. We invested heavily in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education efforts, as well as literacy and gender equality programs in schools around the world. These education efforts are expected to benefit more than 20,000 children by 2013. Our employees play a critical role in our charitable outreach; their efforts resulted in charitable contributions totaling more than $1.6 million and over 18,000 volunteer hours through our Matching Gift and Dollars for Doers programs.

Your Information

With the FY12 launch of our Norton Cybersecurity Institute, Symantec began a global effort to support victims of cybercrime and ensure the successful prosecution of its perpetrators. Through the Norton Cybersecurity Institute, we collaborate with law enforcement and consumer safety groups by providing training, technical expertise, and improved global cooperation in the fight against cybercrime. In return, Symantec benefits from the knowledge-sharing gained through our interactions with law enforcement – knowledge that allows us to develop new products and services that protect our customers against the newest cybercrime techniques.

Symantec is also leading the way in securing our customers’ business-critical applications as they move to the cloud. The launch of Symantec O3 provided our customers with three layers of protection in the cloud, allowing organizations to apply consistent identity and information security across all cloud services and devices, and supporting broader adoption of cloud computing.

The Road Ahead

We have many challenges to tackle in the coming year. As we look at our business through the lens of Our People, The World, and Your Information, we will continue developing Symantec’s portfolio while remaining true to our values, conducting our business ethically and with consideration to our diverse stakeholders’ needs.

I came to Symantec because what we do is mission critical. I came here because what we do matters. We see evidence of that through the feedback we receive from all of you – our customers, partners, employees, investors, and the communities in which we operate. We rely on the perspectives of our diverse stakeholder audiences to help drive the performance and direction of our sustainability efforts, and invite you to share your thoughts on our strategy and priorities by contacting us at CR@Symantec.com.

Sincerely,

Steve Bennett
President, CEO, and Chairman
Symantec Corporation