The words ‘rootkit’ and Symantec have been used in the same sentence before, but usualy in the form of Symantec released a report stating that Sony’s rootkit is evil, not Symantec is using a rootkit in it’s SystemWorks software to protect users from themselves.

Symantec Corp. has fessed up to using a rootkit-type feature in Norton SystemWorks that could provide the perfect hiding place for attackers to place malicious files on computers.

The anti-virus vendor acknowledged that it was deliberately hiding a directory from Windows APIs as a feature to stop customers from accidentally deleting files but, prompted by warnings from security experts, the company shipped a SystemWorks update to eliminate the risk.

Having worked on helpdesk before, I know the frustration of the ‘random file deleting’ user. It’s the user who opens up explorer and finds any files he doesn’t recognise and then deletes them. But hiding the files with a rootkit is not the answer and a computer security company should know better. I’ve been getting less and less impressed with Symantec’s software of late, it’s starting to tend towards bloatware, and this only helps push me towards Trend or someone similar