Symantec breach case to highlight source code protection

A U.S. District Court judge in August 2013 tossed out a class-action law suit that started with a 2006 source code data breach of Symantec. An Indian-based group of hackers tried to extort money from Symantec claiming that they have the source code for pcAnywhere, Norton System Works, Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition and Norton Internet. A party in Texas filed the law suit claiming that users were deprived of the bargain and they did not get a fully functioning Symantec product. Symantec admitted that its source code may have been breached, claimed that outdated software source code breach do not pose a threat and asked all Norton users to take steps to prevent any attacks by the party who is responsible for the breach. This case highlights the importance and protection of the source code.

Source code is a collection of computer instructions written in text format. It is intended to direct a computer to perform certain functions when converted to machine code. Traditionally source code is kept highly secured and away from the users, programmers and the like in order to protect the program and anyone finding out how the program works.

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