Hackers Threatening to Release Symantec Source Code

A group of hackers who call themselves 'Yama Tough' are threatening to release Symantec's source code. Symantec is the maker of the popular Norton antivirus software.

The hackers are believed to have found the code after successfully breaking into the Indian military intelligence's server. It is believed that the code was abandoned on the server after the military inspected the code to make sure it was secure.

'This coming Tuesday beholds the full Norton Antivirus 1,7Gb src, the rest will follow...', the message posted on Yama Tough Twitter account reads.

Before making the post on Twitter, there have been several reports that hackers have the source code for some Symantec products. The security company has since issued a statement saying the attack did not affect current products and that the products in question are Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP)6.0 and Symantec Antivirus 6.2 which are no longer sold or supported.

The group claims to have the code of a dozen other companies. In a Pastebin post, it posted documentation describing API procedures for Symantec's virus definition generating service. The post has since been removed from Pastebin.com.

"The current version of Norton Utilities has been completely rebuilt and shares no common code with Norton Utilities 2006. The code that has been posted for the 2006 version poses no security threat to users of the current version of Norton Utilities," according to the statement from Symantec.

According to industry experts, the source code does not pose that much of a threat to Norton and its customers since it is old code.

This is about the third time in less than a month that this group has struck. They have been attacking and embarrassing notable security establishments in the United States. They broke into the server of the security firm Stratfor. They stole information from tens of thousands of subscribers and their credit cards were used to donate money to charities.

The group, which started a few years ago as simply a group of cyber pranksters that were only interested in making mischief have come of age and are now attacking corporations and recently, fighting for Internet freedom.

The pivotal moment for the group came after several companies stopped associating with Wikileaks.com. The group responded by attacking companies like MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal. Even prosecutors and lawyers in Sweden were targeted as part of this.

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-By Dominic

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