back to article Symantec doubles down on consumer security by buying LifeLock

Symantec has bought identity theft protection firm LifeLock for $2.3bn. The deal, announced Sunday, represents a brave bid by Symantec to shore up a consumer security business eroded by dwindling anti-virus sales. Selling Norton consumer security alongside identity protection and remediation services from LifeLock will enable …

  1. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

    Wow

    and here I thought Lifelock sucked BEFORE... Silly me.

    FULL DISCLOSURE: I have in the past been a customer of both Lifelock and Shitmantec er... Symantec - although not simultaneously. I have since wised up.

    1. fidodogbreath
      FAIL

      Re: Wow

      Great. Now I'll have to wait 10 minutes for my identity to boot up every morning.

  2. Tom Paine
    FAIL

    Big Yellow Bucket o'Fail

    Ahhhh Symantec, still trying to buy their way out of failure... when they borged my then-employer a decade or so back, someone turned up to tell us all how marvellous the brave new world would be. Our hearts sankwhen we filed into the room as we were each handed one of those silicone rubber bracelets, in Symnatec yellow, embossed with the word "BELIEVE". The first slide of the preso showed forty company logos.... "Look, this is how many companies we've taken over in the last five years alone. We know what we're doing! We've got plenty of practice! You can trust us!"

    Three guesses how well that worked out...

  3. Wade Burchette

    LifeLock is useless

    There are 3 credit agencies in the US: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. These 3 let you put a lock on your credit that requires a PIN code to temporarily disable. In some states this is free, in others it is a small fee. Even if you do have to pay a small fee to have a credit freeze, it is still cheaper than a recurring monthly fee to LifeLock. I recommend everyone do this as soon as possible.

  4. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Smart move

    The acquisition makes sense - both companies are in the same business. The anti-virus scam has pretty much run its course - so now they switch to a new tack, "Nice stuff you got there son, be a pity if something happened to it ..." - meet the new bs, same as the old bs.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Identity theft protection snakeoil

    If by 'identity theft' they mean someone using your personal information to execute financial transaction on the Internet, how exactly does is LifeLock supposed to work.

    "Most famously, LifeLock ran a publicity stunt in which its CEO drove a truck painted with his own social security number around New York City, touting the effectiveness of the LifeLock service. It was later revealed that the executive's identity had in fact been stolen several times".

    Mitchell & Webb Sound - Identity Theft

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Identity theft protection snakeoil

      Thank you for posting that. I was just about to do it myself but you beat me to it. LL is a complete waste of money, time, & effort; if it can't even protect its own CEO then there's no hope in HELL it can protect anyone else.

      Like you said earlier just write to the three reporting firms & have a hold placed on your account. They will notify you if anything happens & thus allow you to stop fraud before it hurts. No need for the LL middleman, especially when all it's doing is notifying you that somebody has tried to use your identity... you know, the job the reporting companies ALREADY do if you ask.

      *Sends a tall frosty pint down the bar to you*

      Drink up & have a good one. Just don't use LL if you want to not waste your money on worthless bunk...

    2. DNTP

      Re: Identity theft protection snakeoil

      The best (worst) part of Lifelock's CEO SSN stunt was the one person they managed to catch using the stolen number (no preventative value, apparently) was a desperate mentally disabled man who possibly didn't even realize that it was wrong to use this freely offered SSN. Then their lawyers coerced him on video into signing a confession he certainly was incapable of understanding. The police did a collective facepalm and said they couldn't prosecute thanks to Lifelock sticking their dick into the pudding.

      Meanwhile, Symantec keeps looking for new opportunities to turn uselessness into an actual product standard.

  6. oldtaku Silver badge

    Consumer 'Security'

    Yeah, I guess a giant scammer firm for people who don't know about credit locks that get most of their customers from 'free credit monitoring' after data breaches is a perfect fit for Symantec and their 'security' products.

  7. a_yank_lurker

    Obligatory

    Sleaze meet Slime. Symantec has a bad reputation for garbage products while LifeLock has been deservedly in and out of trouble with the ferals. May be the marriage of Sleaze and Slime will lead to the death of both.

    AV has always been mostly reactive rather than proactive by design. The problem for software vendors is the underlying market is mature so sales growth comes from mostly getting customers from your competitors.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Vaguely reminds me of

    Adobe always trying to foist McAffee crapware on you with Flash plugin downloads. It's like they are saying "We know that using the one product will allow bad things to happen to you, so here's another to try to clean up the damage once it does."

  9. rcx141

    One worthless scam company buying another

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    USA USA USA!

    Where shit is rolled in glitter and sold as a service.

    1. fidodogbreath

      Re: USA USA USA!

      Where shit is rolled in glitter and sold as a service.

      That's hardly unique to the US...

  11. Chris Daemon

    Uhm...

    Buying up PGP and renaming it Symantec Encryption Desktop, making it infuriatingly impossible to find, download and buy for the _average_ customer... yeah, very focused on consumer security. How could this LifeLock annexation possibly fail?!

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