Independent Customer Survey Ranks Symantec First in Overall Value

Symantec Outscores All Vendors to Earn No. 1 Ranking in CIO Insight Survey of CIOs and IT Executives

Toronto, ONT. - March 22, 2004 - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), the global leader in information security, today announced that CIOs and senior IT executives rank the company No. 1 in overall vendor value. According to an independent survey conducted by CIO Insight, a Ziff Davis publication, Symantec outperformed 40 leading IT vendors to receive the highest overall rating for value and reliability.

"As security continues to become more of a business issue it is essential that our products and services respond to the needs of our customers to not only secure, but also manage their IT infrastructure," said John Schwarz, Symantec's president and chief operating officer. "This survey is validation that Symantec's solutions and expertise are helping customers protect their business environments."

Survey respondents rated vendors as "excellent," "good," "fair," or "poor" on several key criteria in the categories of value and reliability and were also asked to indicate if they would continue to do business with each vendor if they had a choice. With the best rankings across the board, Symantec was the only vendor ranked in the top three in all categories. Moreover, Symantec was the clear leader in value, ranking first in reducing costs, solving business problems and delivering ROI.

Symantec was one of only three software vendors to be ranked within the top third of the study in overall value. Moreover, Symantec was the only company to receive excellent ratings for both value and reliability from more than 30 percent of respondents.

Symantec's overall rating (combined value and reliability ratings) of 83.1 percent was 19 percentage points above the next-best security vendor. Also, Symantec scored high in customer loyalty with 96.8 percent of customers saying they would continue to do business with Symantec if they had a choice.

CIO Insight's Vendor Value Survey measures general perceptions among U.S.-based IT executives of the value of their vendors' product and service offerings, and their overall satisfaction with the support these vendors provide. The results of the survey are based on the responses of nearly 1,300 CIOs, CTOs, vice presidents, and other senior executives; 642 respondents were from companies with 1,000 employees or more while 639 were from companies with 50 to 999 employees.

To create their list of the most widely used computer hardware, software, IT consulting, and outsourcing companies in the United States, CIO Insight relied on several sources for revenue data, including Gartner, the Fortune 1000 list, the Forbes Private 500 list, Hoover's Online, and annual and financial reports of individual companies. The published results include only vendors that received 50 or more qualified responses on all ratings. Complete results are available at www.cioinsight.com.

About Symantec
Symantec, the world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions to individuals, enterprises and service providers. The company is a leading provider of client, gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises and service providers around the world. Symantec's Norton brand of consumer security products is a leader in worldwide retail sales and industry awards. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has worldwide operations in 36 countries. For more information, please visit www.symantec.com.

Symantec's Canadian operations are headquartered in Toronto with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary 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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