Friday, October 10, 2014

Symantec announces new strategy to fuel growth

MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA: Symantec Corp. announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved a plan to separate the company into two, independent publicly traded companies: one business focused on security and one business focused on information management (IM).

Symantec’s decision to pursue a separation follows an extensive business review of the company’s strategy and operational structure. Creating two standalone businesses will allow each entity to maximize its respective growth opportunities and drive greater shareholder value.

“As the security and storage industries continue to change at an accelerating pace, Symantec’s security and IM businesses each face unique market opportunities and challenges. It has become clear that winning in both security and information management requires distinct strategies, focused investments and go-­‐to market innovation,” said Michael A. Brown, Symantec president and CEO.

“Separating Symantec into two, independent publicly traded companies will provide each business the flexibility and focus to drive growth and enhance shareholder value.”

The separation will allow each company to:
* Focus on its unique growth opportunities, R&D investments, and go-­‐to-­‐market capabilities.
* Reduce operational complexity.
* Enhance strategic flexibility, pursue partnerships, and develop independent M&A strategies.
* Set distinct capital allocation policies.

Brown continued: “Taking this decisive step will enable each business to maximize its potential. Both businesses will have substantial operational and financial scale to thrive.”

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Symantec launches cyber readiness challenge for corporate India

BANGALORE, INDIA: Symantec will be hosting Cyber Readiness Challenge (CRC) in India for the first time on Wednesday, 03 September at the Vivanta by Taj on M.G Road, Bangalore.

The CRC is an immersive, interactive ‘capture the flag’ competition that models scenarios based on the current threat landscape using realistic IT infrastructure. A first of its kind by a security vendor, the CRC has already seen participation from hundreds of enterprises across the globe and will be launched in Mumbai and Delhi next.

As targeted attacks and advanced persistent threats (APTs) that are capable of stealing financial/customer data and intellectual property, by compromising critical information assets become more real for organizations, the need for increased security awareness and strong protection against threats has never been stronger.

Symantec’s CRC is designed to enable security experts in organizations to experience new attack methods with the latest technologies. Designed for many levels of technical skill and experience, it puts participants in the hacker's shoes to better understand their targets, technology and thought processes so they can ultimately better protect their organization and themselves. By completing security-related challenges to capture the most flags, the participants sharpen their ethical hacking and cyber-forensic skills and raise their awareness of cyber security targets.

The challenge will see IT and cyber security experts from over 25 companies including top banks, IT services, automobile and media enterprises in Bangalore sharpen their security and cyber forensic skills and deepen awareness of cyber attackers' targets and tactics. The four hour competition will include five stages; reconnaissance, incursion, discovery, capture and exfiltration.  Upon completion of the competition, the teams will be ranked according to the amount of points they have scored in the shortest time.