Symantec Exec: Antivirus 'Is Dead'

Just how thoroughly have hackers licked antivirus programs? So thoroughly that even Symantec, which essentially invented commercial antivirus, is jumping ship on the concept, the Wall Street Journal reports. Antivirus "is dead," Symantec Senior VP Brian Dye tells the paper. "We don't think of antivirus as a moneymaker in any way." Symantec's new stance, he explains, will be to assume that hackers can and will break through any antivirus protection, and to focus on containing the damage once they do.

Symantec will create a response team businesses can call on if they've been hacked, intelligence briefings they can buy on specific threats, and technologies for identifying advanced malware in networks. Rivals already have similar products—as Channelnomics notes, other companies have been decrying the decline in antivirus effectiveness for years—but Symantec is hoping its conversion, even if late, can stem plummeting revenue. Dye says the company realized it was time "to get your act together and go play the game you should have been playing in the first place." (More antivirus stories.)