A hacker linked with the release of Symantec PCAnywhere code has not yet followed through on a threat to release source code for Symantec Norton antivirus.
The hacker, ‘Yamatough’, said he would release the Norton antivirus (NAV) source code ‘within seven hours’ on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Yamatough’s Twitter feed, and the AnonymousIRC feed often used to announce Anonymous news, had made no mention of NAV.
Sophos security technology consultant Graham Cluley said that the hacker’s release schedule appeared to have been delayed.
“It seems hackers’ release schedules are just as flaky as legitimate software vendors’,” Cluley told ZDNet UK on Wednesday.
Yamatough was involved in negotiations with Symantec over the putative destruction of source code stolen from Symantec in 2006. Yamatough claimed later to have “trolled” Symantec into offering $50,000 for the destruction of the code, while Symantec characterised the negotiations as “extortion”, saying the email exchange was conducted by law enforcement.
Shortly after negotiations broke down, Anonymous posted the source code for PCAnywhere on the Pirate Bay file-sharing site. Symantec later confirmed the source code was legitimate.
Symantec on Tuesday warned that it expected more source code to be released.
“We anticipate that Anonymous will post the rest of the code they have claimed to have in their possession,” said the company. “So far, they have posted code for the 2006 versions of Norton Utilities and PCAnywhere. We also anticipate that at some point, they will post the code for the 2006 versions of Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition and Norton Internet Security.”
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