Symantec Protects Against Vbs.Newlove.Anavex

Technology Allows Seamless Update to Detect Destructive Worm

CUPERTINO, Calif. - May 19, 2000 - Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced that researchers at the Symantec AntiVirus Research Center (SARC) developed protection against VBS.NewLove.A - a polymorphic computer worm with an extremely destructive payload. The Symantec detection for VBS.NewLove.A includes a new definition set to reliably detect the worm.

"With complex new viruses becoming the norm, it is more important than ever to employ an anti-virus product that has a modular engine and can be deployed at the gateway, server and desktop," said Sanjiv Bhargava, Symantec's vice president of Core Technology. "Symantec's unique NAVEX technology can save IT organizations countless hours of testing, updating, manual virus eliminating, and a backlog of end-user calls to the help-desk."

Norton AntiVirus Extension (NAVEX) technology is integrated into all Norton AntiVirus products and offers unparalleled protection to users resulting in lower cost of ownership. This modular virus-scanning engine allows SARC engineers to quickly update and redistribute the relevant elements of Norton AntiVirus software efficiently and effectively during normal virus definition updates.

VBS.NewLove.A is an Internet worm that uses Microsoft Outlook to spread itself as an attachment with the subject line "FW: [attached file name] along with the attachment listed in the subject line. The virus randomly chooses a recently opened file from the Start/Document folder in the Microsoft Start menu and attaches it to the email as a .vbs file. Each time the virus spreads, it mutates itself to evade detection. Additionally, each time the worm mutates, it adds to the code, which continually increases the file size.

The worm sends a mutated version of itself to all addresses in the computer user's Outlook address book causing mail servers to clog. Once the attachment is opened, the virus overwrites numerous files and renders the computer inoperable. This affects both local and network drives, including mapped networked drives where the user has write access rights.

Symantec's Norton AntiVirus customers can download the current virus definition set, which includes a cure for the VBS.NewLove.A virus through the Symantec's LiveUpdate feature or from the Symantec Web site at www.symantec.com/avcenter/download.html.

Symantec AntiVirus Research Center
SARC is one of the industry's largest dedicated team of virus experts. With offices located in the United States, Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands, the sun never sets on SARC. The center's mission is to provide swift, global responses to computer virus threats, proactively research and develop technologies that eliminate such threats, and educate the public on safe computing practices. As new computer viruses appear, SARC develops identification and detection for these viruses, and provides either a repair or delete operation, thus keeping users protected against the latest virus threats.

About Symantec
Symantec, a world leader in Internet security technology, provides content security solutions to enterprise organisations and helps companies manage and support workforces that use computers and other mobile devices.

Symantec's Canadian operations are headquartered in Toronto with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver. For more information on Symantec products or current promotions, contact the Canadian office at (416) 441-3676 or access Symantec's Canadian web-site at www.symantec.ca. Symantec is an active member of the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST).

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