Symantec boss Greg Clark exits biz amid dismal financials

Greg Clark, CEO and president of Symantec, has "stepped down" suddenly and with no permanent replacement lined up, just as his predecessor did. The beleaguered security house said Clark's departure was "effective immediately" and it named semiconductor veteran and current Symantec director Richard Hill as interim boss. "As we …

[Anonymous Coward]

Good

Well deserved.

[fnusnu]

I wonder if it is related to this?

https://gizmodo.com/top-antivirus-companies-hacked-by-a-credible-threat-dem-1834652937

[Anonymous Coward]

I am pretty sure that little issue added impetus to the foot on the rear kicking him out the door.

[Anonymous Coward]

Errr....seriously?

Someone claims three US-based AV companies (that they won't identify) have been breached and your first suspicion is they shot the CEO as guilty?

No way, it doesn't make sense. If Symantec was hit by this and the Board's plan was to spit out the CEO as a result, then they would pin it on the CEO so the blame leaves with them. They wouldn't try to hide it and then eject the CEO for other reasons. Not logical.

[Kabukiwookie]

Re: Errr....seriously?

Unless the CEO has proof that the board failed in their due diligence, which with the SSL cert fiasco in mind would probably be correct.

[s. pam]

There’s a special place...in Hell

For Symantec and I’m glad their revenues are tanking even more.

As an ex employee who got screwed over by a lying, cheating, say anything boss it breeds contempt like nothing else.

Rot in Hell.

[Steve Aubrey]

Re: There’s a special place...in Hell

no - come on, tell us. How do you really feel?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: There’s a special place...in Hell

Ah, I see you feel the way about them as I do about IBM. For the same reasons.

[Anonymous Coward]

Taking care of family and dealing with personal issues

And all your departing executive buddies probably are tending to their families too...

Funny how bad financials tend to inspire such conscientious humanity.

[Ashentaine]

Re: Taking care of family and dealing with personal issues

"Health and family" appears to have become the new corporate codephrase for "I can't squeeze any more money from this sinking ship, so buh bye!"

[philyboy1]

Alternatives?

Honestly I used to despise Symantec Endpoint Protection back in the day when it was just AV client and it caused endless blue screens and horrific upgrade procedures. I never came across it for years. Previous companies had Sophos amongst others. Now I find myself at a place that has SEP again...and it isn't 'horrible'! Upgrades seem fine. Seems less bloated. We haven't been blown off face of earth by ransomware. However reading this it seems that the company is doomed and I am always thinking there are more modern alternatives that offer more such as Palo Alto traps, Carbon Black etc etc. So my question is, what are people using as an alternative?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Alternatives?

So SEP is doing its job for you, and you want to know which competitor to jump to? Pretty sure you can find a few tech tales of woe on El Reg about 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

Or maybe you have some extra time & extra budget so you are looking at alternatives. Not in most IT shops I have seen. But if you really do have extra time & money, you should hire a BOFH to help you allocate it properly. LOL!

[philyboy1]

Re: Alternatives?

Yes, I am trying to be proactive!

[Mandoscottie]

Re: Alternatives?

its not all it claims, there are 2 well known exploits rampant in all SEP enterprise, from 12.x to 14.x they cant seem to fix it, they have been at it long enough (pre mp6 v12) but they are still open. Sadly I have to deplo we trialled Webroot Corp, for a while and was suitable impressed, but we went SEP.

its a bag of poop, just not as bloated as it once was, a more streamlined bag of poop now :)

[Daniel_5013]

Re: Alternatives?

Osarow-Wyners Class II Network Wire-tap for Perfect Forward Secrecy???

Windows 3.11 and MS-DOS 6.22???

Windows XP and Novell Netware 6.0 updated to 6.5 with hand updated Apache 2.4???

BSD Subsystem for Windows??? (They did it with Novell long before Windows 10!)