In a casual on‑camera interview at Eastern Creek racetrack in Sydney, Symantec CEO Enrique Salem discusses the rapid expansion of consumer‑generated data, the importance of reliable backup solutions, and the evolving landscape of cyber threats. He notes that information volume is doubling roughly every two years, driving the need for services like Norton Online Backup that automatically store data in the cloud. Salem highlights that small‑to‑medium businesses are especially vulnerable because they back up less frequently than larger enterprises. He explains Symantec’s shift toward reputation‑based, predictive threat management—codenamed Quorum—leveraging its massive email‑scanning and backup infrastructure to anticipate unknown malware. The conversation also covers the rise of cybercrime, identity theft, and the lucrative market for stolen personal data. Finally, Salem identifies the top threats of 2009 and trends for 2010: attacks via social media, scareware, and campaigns targeting personal information and identities, underscoring the necessity of continuous protection and daily backups.
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I'm here with Enrique Salem, the CEO of Symantec, and quite obviously we're at Eastern Creek in Sydney, a very exciting racetrack. Enrique, how was your hot lap?
Fantastic. I've never gone 270 kilometers an hour, and that is unbelievable.
We do it in Australia all the time.
I gotta get some of what you're drinking.
Hey, listen, tell me a little bit about the growth of information.
Well, you know what's happening is every day consumers are creating more and more information. We take pictures, we download music, you know, we do a—
Hey, hang on a second. That's, you know, X270 kilometers an hour.
Exactly. So when you look at it, Peter, we are spending a lot of time in the consumer market where they're creating data at alarming rates. Information is doubling every 2 years. We're all taking a lot more pictures that we want to keep. They're the memories that we want to have forever. And our kids, when we take a picture, We don't want them to disappear. We want them to be there forever.
So how can we ensure that doesn't happen?
Well, what Symantec has done is we've created a new version of backup, which is Norton Online Backup, which makes it easy for you to back up what you have automatically over the internet. So you never have to worry about, is it safe at home? We make sure that it's backed up on the internet and then you can get it back easily from anywhere that you are in the world.
So we've spoken about consumers. What about on the business side, small to medium-sized businesses?
Well, everyone is creating data. Businesses are more dependent on digital information every day. And so what that means is that it has to be backed up. Businesses are actually worse, small businesses are worse than consumers in backing up their data.
Is that a fact?
That's driven by they create the data and they're not as worried about a document that they create as businesses get larger, they do a lot more backing up and big businesses all back up their data. But the SMB segment is absolutely vulnerable.
So how does the average person know which product to buy, they say, well, I, I see a whole pile of internet security or antivirus software on the shelf. How do I know what's best for me and my computer?
Well, one of the things you've got to do is you've got to go with companies that you know are going to be there in the future, they're reliable, that have the best protection on the market, and that are driving new innovation. Because the way we fought threats before is not the way we're going to fight them in the future. And so we've introduced new things, uh, technology that we are codenaming Quorum, that basically a reputation-based approach that protects you against threats we've never seen. And so you want to go with companies that are differentiating in the marketplace by providing the best protection that's easy to use, easy to install, and that you never have to worry about. And that's what Symantec and the Norton products are doing.
So, so what we're talking about here is predictive threat management, really?
Well, what it is, is we're using the breadth of our network because we scan about a third of the world's email. We see about half the world's data that we back up. And so what that allows us to do is understand and predict, as you say, Peter, what are the new threats. And that's allowed us to create a new technology that will allow us to know what programs are bad and have a bad reputation and you shouldn't run, and what programs are good.
The term cybercrime has entered the vernacular. I'm not convinced I know exactly what it means, so perhaps you can tell me.
What you've got right now is that criminals, organized crime, is figuring out that They can go on the internet and they can steal information that you create. They can steal your identity. They can steal your details. And so now we've got a whole new set of criminals who are stealing information and then selling it on the black market so that they can ultimately steal what matters most to you: personal information, data that you've created, and ultimately your identity.
And as you said before, they can convert that into dollars.
Absolutely. Criminals are making a lot of money selling identities. Tens of dollars per identity that they steal. So if they've got your name and an identification, they can actually put those together and sell it for a lot of money.
So Enrique Salem, finally, what were the top threats in 2009, and what do you see are the trends in 2010?
Yeah, what we're seeing right now is that everybody's using social media, and so that means social media is a place that there'll be a lot of attacks. People who are tweeting embedded links, you're also seeing scareware, and you're seeing lots of things that are targeting personal information. Information and personal identities. And that's what we're currently seeing as the major attacks in '09 and 2010.
Wow. You've got to have software on your computer to protect yourself, don't you?
That's right. You can't go on the internet without it, and you want to make sure all your data is backed up every day.
