Read-only archive of the All About Symbian forum (2001–2013) · About this archive

Nokia bring Symantec on board

4 replies · 7,012 views · Started 06 October 2005

In a 'belt and braces' move, Nokia has signed a licensing deal with Symantec to preload the latter's anti-virus software onto (unspecified) future smartphones. Read more...

It's perhaps a move that's as important as being seen to be taking a stance against malware, as it is for actually protecting devices. Symbian OS is certainly pretty resistant against traditional viral infections. Interestingly, the Symantec solution includes both a 'firewall' (last time we checked, Symbian OS didn't hold any ports open to the outside world when online, but this will also monitor outgoing activity as well) and a welcome 'live update' (Over The Air) service.

Nokia's full press release is here.

NO! Dear God, no! I've had the misfortune of using Norton on a previous laptop of mine - it slows the performance of the machine down very significantly (and this is a 3.0Ghz with 512Mb RAM laptop). Can you imagine what it's going to do with the limited processor and RAM of a smartphone? Can you imagine how long it's going to take to scan a 1Gb memory card?

By all means bung it on an add-on CD so that users can install it at whim but don't build it into the phone itself...

Can you imagine that what a PC application does and behaves on your PC has no bearing on what a Symbian application does and how it behaves on your phone (they are not and cannot be based on the same source code). 😉

I know that they are two completely different OSes, but I never had any issues with McAfee as an AV solution. I'm just a little concerned as to how well it will be implemented, given that Symantec has no experience of Series 60. If Nokia has to have some sort of AV system, why not go with one from F-Secure?