Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Home
Business
Business Home
Economy
Davos 2012
Technology
Media
Small Business
Legal
Deals
Earnings
Summits
Business Video
The Freeland File
Markets
Markets Home
U.S. Markets
European Markets
Asian Markets
Global Market Data
Indices
M&A
Stocks
Bonds
Currencies
Commodities
Futures
Funds
peHUB
World
World Home
U.S.
Brazil
China
Euro Zone
Japan
Mexico
Russia
India Insight
World Video
Reuters Investigates
Decoder
Politics
Politics Home
Election 2012
Issues 2012
Candidates 2012
Tales from the Trail
Political Punchlines
Supreme Court
Politics Video
Tech
Technology Home
MediaFile
Science
Tech Video
Tech Tonic
Opinion
Opinion Home
Chrystia Freeland
John Lloyd
Felix Salmon
Jack Shafer
David Rohde
Bernd Debusmann
Nader Mousavizadeh
Lucy P. Marcus
David Cay Johnston
Bethany McLean
Edward Hadas
Hugo Dixon
Ian Bremmer
Mohamed El-Erian
Lawrence Summers
Susan Glasser
The Great Debate
Steven Brill
Geraldine Fabrikant
Jack & Suzy Welch
Breakingviews
Equities
Credit
Private Equity
M&A
Macro & Markets
Politics
Breakingviews Video
Money
Money Home
Tax Break
Global Investing
MuniLand
Unstructured Finance
Linda Stern
Mark Miller
John Wasik
James Saft
Analyst Research
Alerts
Watchlist
Portfolio
Stock Screener
Fund Screener
Personal Finance Video
Money Clip
Investing 201
Life
Health
Sports
Arts
Faithworld
Business Traveler
Entertainment
Oddly Enough
Lifestyle Video
Pictures
Pictures Home
Reuters Photographers
Full Focus
Video
Reuters TV
Reuters News
Article
Comments (0)
Follow Reuters
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
YouTube
Read
FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists
06 Feb 2012
Fidel Castro warns of bleak future, touts memoir
06 Feb 2012
DEA raids 2 CVS pharmacies in drug abuse probe
06 Feb 2012
Russia's Lavrov seeks peace in Syria as forces bombard
|
11:01am EST
Iran shrugs off latest U.S. sanctions, trade suffers
8:20am EST
Discussed
249
FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists
195
Job growth seen slowing after holiday boost
98
Indiana poised to approve anti-union law
Watched
Jet engine bike passes test-fire trial ahead of speed record bid
Mon, Feb 6 2012
Floating cities proposed as havens of future happiness
Fri, Feb 3 2012
Deadly pitcher-plant inspires super slippery nano-surface
Sun, Feb 5 2012
Hackers sought $50,000 from Symantec for anti-virus blueprint
Tweet
Share this
Email
Print
Related News
When your email is hacked, protect investments first
Mon, Feb 6 2012
Anonymous publishes FBI call on hacking
Fri, Feb 3 2012
Exclusive: Hacked companies still not telling investors
Thu, Feb 2 2012
Key Internet operator VeriSign hit by hackers
Thu, Feb 2 2012
Zuckerberg's letter to investors
Wed, Feb 1 2012
Analysis & Opinion
Some U.S. banks awash in ID theft tax-fraud proceeds as IRS cracks down
Details in leaked FBI call could prove uncomfortable for Anonymous
Related Topics
Tech »
Cyber Crime »
By Frank Jack Daniel
Tue Feb 7, 2012 3:46am EST
(Reuters) - Hackers sought $50,000 from U.S. anti-virus firm Symantec Corp in return for the stolen blueprints to its flagship products under what the company says was a sting operation run by an undisclosed law enforcement agency via emails.
The company said the emails were in fact between the hacker and law enforcement officials posing as a Symantec employee.
"The communications with the person(s) attempting to extort the payment from Symantec were part of the law enforcement investigation," company spokesman Cris Paden said, adding that no money was paid.
Paden declined to name the law enforcement agency, saying it may compromise the investigation.
Symantec had previously confirmed the hacker, part of a group called Lords of Dharmaraja and affiliated with Anonymous, was in possession of source code for its products, obtained in a 2006 breach of the company's networks.
An email exchange released by the hacker, who is known as YamaTough and claims to be based in Mumbai, India, shows drawn-out negotiations with a purported Symantec employee starting on January 18.
pastebin.com/GJEKf1T9
The email negotiations echoed conversations in past years, viewed by Reuters, in which police agencies directed talks between victims and hackers.
"We can't pay you $50,000 at once for the reasons we discussed previously," said one email from a purported Symantec employee Sam Thomas, who offered to pay the full amount at a later date.
"In exchange, you will make a public statement on behalf of your group that you lied about the hack."
The hacker said he never intended to take the money and warned he would soon release the blueprints for Symantec's pcAnywhere and Norton antivirus products.
"We tricked them into offering us a bribe so we could humiliate them," YamaTough told Reuters.
In recent weeks, the hacker has posted segments of code for Norton Utilities and other programs. A software maker's intellectual property, specifically its source code, is its most precious asset.
Symantec's Norton Internet Security is among the most popular software available to stop viruses, spyware, and online identity theft.
Symantec said the version of the source code in the hacker's possession from 2006 no longer posed a threat to its customers even if the full blueprint to the software is released.
After the hack was made public in January, Symantec asked its customers to temporarily disable pcAnywhere. It later declared it safe to use after offering free upgrades.
(Reporting By Frank Jack Daniel; Additional reporting by Jim Finkle and Joseph Menn; Editing by Ed Lane)
Tech
Cyber Crime
Related Quotes and News
Company
Price
Related News
Tweet this
Link this
Share this
Digg this
Email
Reprints
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment on reuters.com.
Add yours using the box above.
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Back to top
Reuters.com
Business
Markets
World
Politics
Technology
Opinion
Money
Pictures
Videos
Site Index
Legal
Bankruptcy Law
California Legal
New York Legal
Securities Law
Support & Contact
Support
Corrections
Advertise With Us
Connect with Reuters
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
RSS
Podcast
Newsletters
Mobile
About
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Copyright
Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider
An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution
A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance
Our next generation legal research platform
Our global tax workstation
Thomsonreuters.com
About Thomson Reuters
Investor Relations
Careers
Contact Us
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.