Did you know that 911 hotlines receive calls when Facebook goes down? It’s true! In today’s world, anyone who believes backup by itself is a reliable business continuity strategy is surely living in the past.
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There’s no need to worry about malware on smartphones, right? That’s the attitude of most mobile users and even a large percentage of IT managers. For many users that attitude might be because they view their phone simply as a way to make calls, text, take pictures and to stay connected to social media. Mobile professionals recognize the productivity gains of viewing business documents or emailing on the go, but they don’t always think of their mobile device as a pocket-size computer, susceptible to malware and hacks just like laptops and desktops.

Much of this lack of security concern can be traced back to Apple and the early BYOD years. Apple helped fuel BYOD acceptance when it opened its App Store as a way for iPhone users to have a single, trusted source for getting apps. Since Apple doesn’t allow any apps on its store until it vets and evaluates each one individually, it has been able to make a very convincing argument that iPhones and the apps they run are safe for the enterprise.

But as BYOD has grown, so has the share of professionals using Android mobile devices. Whether it’s good or bad, the open nature of Android devices allows mobile users to get apps for their devices from any source. Google does provide Google Play as a monitored and relatively safe source for apps, but malware has even been known to surface on its pages. When bad behaving apps have been discovered on Google Play, Google has been quick to remove them, but that doesn’t necessarily help unknowing users who may have already downloaded them.

One of the big challenges Android users face in keeping devices free of malware is how easy it is for professional hackers to create infected apps that look just like legitimate apps. During an RSA conference presentation more than a year ago, a security expert showed how easy it is to reverse-engineer an existing Android app, insert malicious code into it, and repackage the app so it looks just like the original. The whole process took the presenter less than five minutes.

This type of attacked surfaced in South Korea, where hackers compromised a legitimate Korean app developer’s site and replaced the developer’s legitimate app with a look-alike app that contained a variant of the Android Fakeguard threat. When users were notified of an update to the app, they unknowingly downloaded the infected app to their devices.

Counterfeit app marketplaces have become common as well. Designed to look like official marketplaces, they dupe users into downloading what appears to be legitimate popular apps, but which are actually malicious counterfeits. Mobile email accounts have served as another popular method for spreading malicious apps. Users receive emails that prompt them to download an app from a provided link, which if they do, they become an unsuspecting victim.

In many of these cases you might shake your head and say, “Hey, the users should have known better.” You’re right. They should know better. But it comes back to the prevailing misguided attitude among users and even IT professionals that malware is not a threat to mobile devices.

For organizations that support BYOD, they need to teach users that the mobile malware threat is real. Training and policies need to be established that educate users to stay away from suspicious sites and to stick with legitimate app marketplaces. Still, that’s not enough. History has shown that legitimate marketplaces can be compromised too.

That means you need to be able to determine how many Android devices without malware protection connect to your network and then discover the malware status of those devices. With that information you can set priorities for applying malware protection to those devices. That assessment can also help you determine if mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), or threat protection solutions might benefit your mobile security stance.

Now that you know better, it’s time to educate, assess and protect your mobile environment.

Learn more about how Symantec offers protection for enterprise mobility.

"Study the past if you would define the future."
– Confucius

A lot has changed in the backup industry over the past two decades. In honor of World Backup Day, we thought it might be fun to take a look back and see how things have changed over that time. We produced this Infographic to give you the big picture, but read on if you want to know more of the details and how NetBackup and Backup Exec have played an essential role in shaping the backup industry as it exists today.

• Three-tier architecture– NetBackup’s unique three tier architecture transformed the management of enterprise backup by allowing all policies and management tasks to be orchestrated from a single master server which then controlled a number of media servers that performed the actual data movement, backup, and restore operations. The result allowed a smaller IT staff to manage backup operations for a much larger IT environment.
• Open file backup– It’s hard to imagine, but there was a time when you had to shut down your applications in order to back them up. In the mid-90s Backup Exec and NetBackup promoted a new open file backup technology based on file system snapshots that enabled live data to be backed up while in use, greatly simplifying the daily backup task and ensuring important files were not skipped. Backup administrators could sleep a lot better after that.
• Email message-level restore– In the early days of Microsoft Exchange, email backups were database-only, so if you only wanted to restore a specific message you had to first recover the entire email database to an alternate location and then browse for the message you needed. To remedy this problem, Backup Exec pioneered the first generation of Granular Restore Technology, allowing a single email message to be selected and restored from the Backup Exec interface, forever changing how email is restored.
• Shared storage over SCSI– Large tape libraries had become the norm in the mainframe environment, providing economies of scale for large enterprises. But the open systems environment still required storage to be tethered to a single server, resulting a many small islands of storage including smaller tape libraries and autoloaders, one per server. That was until NetBackup introduced a ground breaking technology that allowed multiple servers to share a single tape library over SCSI. Tape management was never the same after that.
• Tape multiplexing– In the 90s tape drive performance had grown to the point where the bottleneck shifted to the network. Despite their fast performance, tape drives often sat idle waiting for data to travel over the network. NetBackup solved this problem with tape multiplexing, allowing multiple data streams from different sources to be interleaved into fewer, high performance data streams that could keep the tape drives spinning as fast as they could go. Backup windows were manageable again.
• Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP)– Filers introduced the NDMP interface as a means of protecting filer data via remote control without agents. NetBackup quickly implemented its NDMP support and later extended its capabilities to allow several different backup methods. Today NDMP is the default, low cost method for protecting filer data.
• Bare Metal Restore (BMR)– Originally introduced under the name Intelligent Disaster Recovery, the concept of Bare Metal Restore was pioneered by Backup Exec and later proliferated by NetBackup. With BMR technology, full system recoveries were automated and no longer required restore operators to know the details of configuring hardware or installing operating systems. Such automation improved recovery times and eliminated much of the human error common in high-pressure recovery situations.
• Database Block Level Incremental backup (BLI) – Protecting very large databases (VLDB) has always pushed the limits of backup technology. NetBackup’s early solution to this problem was through tight integration with Veritas Storage Foundation storage checkpoint technology, allowing only block-level changes within databases to be copied while ignoring everything else. BLI backups of Oracle and DB2 could be performed in a fraction of the time, making VLDBs a lot less scary than they used to be to the backup team.
• FlashBackup– Some of the largest applications at the time, such as the Human Genome project, were now hosting millions of files on a single system. Backing up these systems proved to be very slow as the file system became the primary bottleneck when the number of files reached a certain point. NetBackup designed a revolutionary solution to this problem, bypassing the file system with an image-style backup, but then performing a block map of the file system as part of the catalog post-process. The result was FlashBackup, an ideal way to quickly back up a massive file system without losing the ability to restore a single file.
• Shared storage over a Fiber Channel SAN– In the 90s large enterprises were using very large tape libraries to protect their mainframes, but could not leverage these investments to protect their LAN systems. That all changed when storage area networks (SAN) were born. Backup Exec launched Shared Storage Option, the world’s first backup solution based on Fiber Channel SANs in partnership with Compaq (now HP), allowing those huge tape libraries to finally be shared by many systems connected via a SAN.
• Hardware snapshot integration– NetBackup introduced its first generation of snapshot management integration with EMC Timefinder, enabling the NetBackup administrator to incorporate snapshots into their backup strategy. With this capability, NetBackup could orchestrate data synchronization and 3rd-mirror break-off backups on EMC Symmetrix arrays.
• Vertex Initiative– In the shadow of the Internet Bubble, the convergence of backup and snapshot technology leaped forward with something called the Vertex Initiative, NetBackup’s second generation of snapshot integration. NetBackup delivered integration with several hardware snapshot technologies and allowed customers to perform nondisruptive, snapshot-assisted backups, including off-host and server-free backups.
• Virtual Tape Libraries (VTL)– As the costs of disk began to compete with tape, the first wave of disk-based backup technologies were dominated by virtual tape libraries. While supporting VTLs was a straightforward qualification effort, NetBackup took it one step further and provided a level of integration that allowed VTLs to communicate with NetBackup so image duplication and data retention could be accomplished within the NetBackup policy framework.
• Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape (D2D2T)– The next wave of disk-based backup began to incorporate standard JBOD systems into the mix as the first stage of a tiered backup architecture that combined disk and tape. NetBackup pushed the state-of-the-art forward with its flexible and advanced disk-based backup technologies, allowing disk capacity to be more easily managed using water marks and more logical operations that broke free of the limits of legacy tape methods.
• Global data deduplication– The continued growth of disk as a backup target offered new opportunities to exploit the advantages of disk over tape. One of the most important innovations was deduplication technology which allowed data redundancies to be eliminated on a scale far beyond legacy compression technologies. NetBackup introduced its first generation of data deduplication in 2005, reducing storage requirements by as much as 90% or more. With this technology, disk finally became more cost-effective than tape as a primary backup target.
• V-Ray– As VMware took the IT world by storm, NetBackup was first out of the gate to deliver truly advanced capability to this platform. Later dubbed “V-Ray,” NetBackup’s first generation of VMware integration did something nobody else could do: select and restore a single file from a VMDK-level backup. No longer would backup admins have to choose between VMDK image-level backups or VM guest-level backups. Cited by the analysts as one of NetBackup’s most distinctive and industry-leading capabilities, V-Ray technology helped NetBackup win Best of VMWorld in 2007, the first of many awards to follow.
• OpenStorage Technology (OST) – The next wave of disk-based backup saw the proliferation of intelligent storage devices and appliances. Rather than put together a string of ad-hoc integrations with different vendors, NetBackup created an interface to allow these devices to “plug-in”, allowing NetBackup to directly leverage the intelligent capabilities of these devices. Launched as the OpenStorage Technology API, this interface has all but become a de facto standard in the backup industry.
• NetBackup 5200 Integrated Backup Appliance– NetBackup decided to enter the backup appliance market with solution that combined software and hardware into a fully integrated platform. Since then the NetBackup Appliance has outpaced the growth of all other backup appliances in the market. Unlike so called target appliances, the NetBackup Appliance replaces storage, media servers, and storage interconnects, greatly simplifying the deployment and maintenance of NetBackup infrastructure.
• Accelerator– The latest innovation to transform the backup world came with NetBackup 7.5. NetBackup combined several key technologies including optimized synthetics and changed block tracking to create a method of backup that permanently eliminates the need to perform full backups. When combined with deduplication technology, daily backup times can be reduced by an order of magnitude over traditional full backup methods. Time-consuming full backups are now a thing of the past.

Despite all that has changed over the past two decades, one thing hasn't: a reliable backup remains as the final solution when all else fails. No matter how technology evolves in the future, having a spare copy in your back pocket will always bail you out.

Symantec’s Volunteer of the Quarter initiative highlights and rewards those employees who dedicate their time and talents to those in need. We have a long and proud history of encouraging our employees to volunteer. While the driving force of our efforts is largely altruistic, there is even more to volunteering than giving back to our communities. Volunteering makes our company a better place to work, so employees are helping both Symantec and the organizations they volunteer for.

This quarter we recognize Matthew Q. Smith, Sr. Director, Global Indirect Sales & Programs and his work with Autism Speaks, the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization.

People often ask me why I volunteer? I volunteer because I want to make a dent in the universe. I want to give back to society in as many ways as possible. It’s also why I work at Symantec – we are making a positive difference in the world, and I get to be a part of that. As Volunteer of the Quarter I am honored to have the chance to share my story with those inside and outside the walls of Symantec, and hopefully encourage others to take their passions and desire to give back out to their communities to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others.  

Channeling my passion

In 2009, my wife and I received the news that our son Quinn had been diagnosed with Autism. At first, I hid it from everyone. I was embarrassed and I felt alone in my struggle. Then I decided to channel these feelings and do something about it. I wanted to fight for him, but honestly also for myself. It was then that I started volunteering for Autism Speaks.

At Autism Speaks, their goal is to change the future for all who struggle with an autism spectrum disorder. According to Autism Speaks, ‘ten years ago, autism’s estimated prevalence was 1 in 166. Today it’s 1 in 68 – an increase of more than 100% in one decade[1]. Additionally, autism receives less than 5% of the research funding as Leukemia, Pediatric AIDs, and Muscular Dystrophy[2]. From supporting scientific research to helping autism patients thrive to educating friends, families and communities affected by autism, there are numerous opportunities to make a difference and contribute to reversing this trend. 

My history with Autism Speaks

I started volunteering with Autism Speaks five years ago, in 2010, at the national level to help companies develop autism coverage. In addition to recently joining the Autism Speaks Texas board as the chairman, my wife and I formed the Autism Speaks 8k Run and 1k Fun Run taking place each year in West Austin, Texas. A small group of us, including another Symantec employee, are now on track to raise over $225,000 through this little race we started 2.5 years ago. This year we expect to raise $125,000 from corporate donations and grow to over 2,500 participants as the race has expanded to three major cities.

On average, I spend about 20 hours per month in various volunteering capacities, as well as leveraging the Dollars for Doers and the Employee Matching Grant programs (1:1 matching) to contribute directly  to research on autism or to family programs. And most currently, I envision applying the Volunteer of the Quarter grant to acquire hundreds of Autism Speaks 100-day kits for newly diagnosed families.

The personal and professional payback

If you want to grow as a person, if you want to meet new people, if you want to develop new skills, and, ultimately, if you want to make your own dent in the universe – volunteering, whether it is serving on a board or serving soup, is a wonderful experience. Personally for me, it has enriched my personal and professional lives in numerous ways:

• My service activities have made me a better person and a better leader. My involvement has helped me grow as a person – from learning to lead and motivate volunteers to communicating to a wide variety of people. Most importantly, they help keep me grounded in what’s important in life, understanding how fortunate I am compared to many, and ensuring I maintain the right set of values.

• I can directly apply my business skills to increase the impact of my volunteering. It’s one of the greatest benefits we bring to non-profits – our business acumen and leadership skills. For example, I brought our Journey Line methodology recently to our first Texas board meeting to help everyone connect on a deeper level and to accelerate our ability to communicate with each other. Other much needed skills I’ve seen are financial analysis (e.g. building a P&L), strategic marketing, sales, and general leadership.

• I’ve learned more in building these non-profit initiatives than I ever could by just being in the workforce. I’ve truly refined and honed my leadership skills – motivating and helping people. I’ve learned about completely new areas, like social media and social media marketing – from the platforms you use, to the best times to schedule posts, to the ROI for specific types of posts, etc. I likely would never touch those areas on my current career path.

• I’ve made diverse connections across industries. These connections are invaluable to my current Symantec work as they fuel new ideas, innovative ways of doing things, and dramatically expand my network.

Most importantly, I’ve had the opportunity to build something that truly makes a difference. I’ve helped so many people overcome a challenging diagnosis for their children and I’ve been able to raise a significant amount of money for research and family programs supporting this cause so important to me. I have been able to set an example for my children, teach them about giving back and show them how lucky we are as a family.

From our partners in HR to our community programs, Symantec is truly helping me fight for my son and fight for my cause … and for that I am truly grateful.

Matthew Q. Smith is Symantec's Sr. Director, Global Indirect Sales & Programs

Veritas has been busy this March with the announcement of the NetBackup vSphere 6 same day support, support for Google Cloud Storage Nearline, and even hosting the first ever NetBackup Reddit Ask-Me-Anything (AMA).  We here at Veritas are excited about the advancements taking place both within Veritas and within the marketplace.

During our AMA we answered your questions as accurately and quickly as possible, but we were cut short due to a technical issues with the site.  Don't worry thought, we will have a follow up AMA early summer.

There were great questions, comments, and feedback posted during the AMA. Here are some of the questions and comments.  To see the answers go to the Veritas NetBackup AMA.   

[–]just_some_old_man 

1. What -can- you tell us about general plans/directions? What kinds of good stuff is going on in the world of Netbackup?
2. Any plans to directly partner or offer your own cloud storage? Amazon and Google offer super cheap storage. I know we can direct backups to cloud vendors now; just wondering if you'll be working with customers to make it even easier/cheaper.
3. Elephant in the room is Veeam. What do you offer in direct competition with Veeam and why do you think your product is better?
4. Last I checked, the licensing and add-ons and options still seemed to be a mess. In my opinion... the marketing info rarely makes clear that certain options are extra $$$. Are you planning on making it clearer which add-ons and options are extra cost?

[–]sammydacat 

• We purchased a Netbackup appliance for a testbed in one of our outer offices and found it to be a very simple solution. The ease of setup allowed us to basically drop it in and start backup for or environment in less than one hour. Also the ability to replicate images using acceleration (AIR) between the outer office to the larger backup environment was a pleasant surprise.

[–]TemptThePuffin 

1. Why didn't you capitalize VERITAS? I thought marketing was pretty clear on the branding thing.
2. Are the walls in HRO still awful Lego colors?
3. Shouldn't it be "My voice is my passport?"
4. Has science figured out a way to keep people awake during one of van den Bosch's presentations?

Thank you all who joined the AMA and other announcements this month. We look forward to more announcements and our upcoming AMA early this summer.

Get get your questions ready. 

Research your opportunity to solve bigger customer problems and earn greater rewards with our top 3 program workshops

We held our first in our series of "How-to" webcasts for Ghost Solution Suite 3.0 on March 25, 2015.

• Download or playback the Webcast here:
  • https://symantec.box.com/s/wxm73vv8k3bf4tc7k49lihnkajrgo4lh

• Download the slides from the Webcast
  • See attached pdf

• Q&A
  • We had a TON of questions (which is great!) and are still going through them all. We will update this post with the Q & A soon.

Today, March 31st, is the annual International Transgender Day of Visibility. Today we talk about the power of being visible; the freedom that comes when one is allowed to be who they truly are in all areas of life without fear of reprimand or recourse. We also recognize the pioneers and every-day heroes in the transgender community – those who stand up, speak out, and advocate for the fair treatment of everyone – transgender and cisgender alike.

In the last year, there have been many strides towards gender equality for transgender people around the world:

• The year started off with the Affordable Care Act in the United States, which specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, making it possible for transgender Americans to finally receive insurance for transition-related medical care.
• In April, the U.S. Department of Education granted Title IX protections to transgender students, declaring that students cannot be discriminated against based on their gender identity or gender expression under federal law.
• In India, also in April, in a landmark judgment in National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v. Union of India and Others, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that transgender people should be recognized as a third gender and not only enjoy all fundamental rights, but also receive special benefits in education and jobs.
• In July the U.S. Labor Department extended nondiscrimination protections to its transgender employees. Followed later in by President Obama signing Executive Order 13672 which added gender identity as a protected class against discrimination for all federal employees.
• In August, Mill’s College (Oakland, CA) became the first single-sex college in the United States to adopt a policy that explicitly welcomes any self-identified women to apply for enrollment.
• In January, Madhu Bai Kinnar, a transgender woman from the lowest caste in India, was elected mayor of Raigarh, making her the first openly transgender mayor in the country’s history.
• Earlier this month, the Swedish Academy announced that the upcoming edition of Sweden’s official dictionary will contain a new gender-neutral pronoun (“hen”). This is a huge step for all transgender people globally as Sweden leads the way for inclusion at the linguistic level.
   

How can you help celebrate?

• Go to a local Transgender Day of Visibility Event

There are TDoV events all around the world. Check out their Facebook Page for more information and to find an event near you.

• Learn about transgender history

Delving into transgender history, it doesn’t take long to realize that transgender individuals have been making waves for not just decades but for centuries. Names like Jennie June, Billy Tipton, Christine Jorgensen, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Renee Richards, Chaz Bono, Lana Wachowski, Janet Mock, and Laverne Cox come to mind as pioneers and great leaders in our community. There’s a history of transgender visibility on GLAAD’s website.

• Educate yourself about what it means to be transgender

Much of the discrimination the transgender community faces stems from ignorance. As humans we often fear the unknown or what we don’t understand. Much of the work transgender activists do is focused on spreading education on the topic of what it means to be transgender. Demystifying the trans* experience is a huge step in the process towards achieving real progressive change. You can do your part by educating yourself. If you need help, start with GLAAD’s Transgender 101 resource.

• Reach out to a transgender person in your life and thank them for being visible

Sometimes the best way to celebrate a day like today is to simply say thank to the trans* people in your life who are out and visible. The more visible the community is, the more progress is made towards equality.

All the achievements made in this past year are directly due to the transgender individuals who spoke up, spoke out, and demanded to be heard. It takes an incredible amount of courage to be out and visible in a time where there is so much hate and violence still directed at the transgender population. Here at Symantec we value diversity through honoring our individual differences, recognizing that without diversity there is no innovation. Today we hope you will join us in celebrating the awareness and freedom that visibility brings.

Cass Averill is Symantec's Training Czar - Symantec Endpoint Protection. Read his personal transition story. 

Last week, fourteen young adults in and around New York City had a lot to celebrate. After 26 rigorous weeks of training, including a 10-week internship with some of the world’s top companies, they became the first graduating class of Symantec’s signature corporate responsibility program – the Symantec Cybersecurity Career Connection (SC3).

As graduates of SC3, these young adults have positioned themselves to join the next generation of cybersecurity professionals and help fill a much needed gap in our industry for highly-skilled, diverse and experienced candidates.  For example, there are an estimated 300,000 open cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. that cannot be filled despite evidence that 20% could be filled by candidates without a four-year college degree. Additionally, the youth unemployment rate for ages 18-24 has reached 15 percent, or double the national adult average, while women and minorities are under-represented in cybersecurity roles.

The SC3 program is aimed at underrepresented and underserved young adults in technology, specifically blacks, Hispanics and women. Over 85% of the NPower graduating class were professionals of color (69% black, 19% Hispanic) and 25% female.

Through SC3 and our regional partner NPower, these students gained highly valued and industry-recognized certifications such as CompTIA Network+, Security+, Linux+ and others. Additionally, they’ve shown they can put these skills directly into practice through internships at NPower host partners including Bank of America, CBS, Citi, KPMG, Morgan Stanley, New York Times, Marathon Consulting, and TD Ameritrade.

{Click here to watch the NPower graduation video that features stories of individual students and their inspirational journeys with SC3!} 

A night of inspiration, celebration and recognition  

The graduation was hosted at the Bank of America offices with Symantec’s SVP & Chief Information Officer Sheila B. Jordan delivering the commencement address. Symantec and NPower were joined by the proud families of the students, along with executives from NPower’s host partners and leaders in the cybersecurity field. It was a night to celebrate the collective efforts of this partnership and the positive outcomes

“I’m so proud to see the first cohort of students graduate from Symantec Cyber Career Connection,”

“It’s a pivotal day for these ambitious young adults who – thanks to one of our key partners, NPower – are stepping into their first cybersecurity careers and filling the expanding need for cybersecurity professionals. For Symantec and the entire industry, it’s a day worth celebrating, and we look forward to ushering in more graduates at our other partner sites soon.”

- Sheila B. Jordan, SVP & Chief Information Officer, Symantec

Symantec SVP & Chief Information Officer, Sheila Jordan, delivers an inspiring keynote to at the SC3 graduation. Attendees included NPower students, their families, leading cybersecurity professionals and NPower corporate partners such as Bank of America, KPMG, CBS and more.

Symantec Cyber Career Connection (SC3) first graduating class in New York City on March 23rd. The 26-week intensive program was carried out through partner NPower and provided participants with the skills and experience to begin a career in cybersecurity and address the industry’s current workforce gap.

Peter Hancock, Sr. Director, Technical Sales for Symantec addresses the SC3 graduation ceremony. Peter is co-Chairman of NPower’s Tech Service Corps advisory board and has played a key role in advising NPower on expansion opportunities.

Sometimes Life Has Its Own Plans for You

The completion of this first class showcases the difference that effective training and education can make in a young adult’s future.

For example, twenty-six year old Michael Borges from the Bronx, who represented his class at the graduation never envisioned himself pursuing a career in cybersecurity. However, as he stated, "sometimes life has its own plans for you.” Through the SC3 program, he has obtained his A+, Network+, Security+ and Linux+ certifications and interned at CBS as a Security Analyst. Now he aspires to become a Threat Intelligence Analyst or a Digital Forensic Analyst and someday becoming a CTO or CISO.

Symantec’s Debra McLaughlin (Manager, Global Corporate Responsibility) with SC3 graduating students and Mohandchan “Mo” Raghbeer, Academic Manager for NPower.

Building the Skills to Protect Our Future

Symantec is committed to making the world a safer and better place, and as a leader in cybersecurity, we launched this program to help close the workforce gap and create a path to meaningful careers for underserved young adults who may not have the resources to attend college.

Every opportunity created, every door opened through our innovative SC3 program is strengthening the lives and communities it touches, and improving the potential of our industry as a whole. As the SC3 program continues, we look forward to watching these young adults move into their ideal cyber careers, playing a role in addressing the cybersecurity workforce gap and paving the way to building the skills to protect our future. 

Cecily Joseph is Symantec’s Vice President, Corporate Responsibility and Chief Diversity Officer

Symantec is developing a new exciting self-service product which will allow you to get access to the data you need faster.  We are looking for Oracle Application Developers to participate in online meetings, phone interviews, and in person collaborations.

If you are interested in finding out more about opportunities to help shape this product , please email Diana_Chow@symantec.com your contact information

We’re offering a $50 gift-card for your participation.

Qualifier: Working in medium-large environments

Oracle Database Administrators
Responsibilities
Create Oracle DBs for non-prod & prod environments
Make DB backups
Perform recovery
Manage DB storage structures
Monitoring DB health & tune performance

Sample Questions
How much data do you work with?
How many DB instances does your org support?
How often do you refresh non-prod DBs?

VMware Administrators
Responsibilities
Provide testing sandbox for fully virtualized multi-tier applications
Maintain VM infrastructure, server builds, disaster recovery and firmware upgrades
Deploy virtual and physical machines
Maintain a library of VM templates

Oracle or VM Application Developers and QA Engineers
Responsibilities
Develops or tests using copies of production data (not mock data)
Production business applications are virtualized on VMware

Migrating servers using the Server Settings Migration Wizard (SSMW) for Enterprise Vault can greatly simplify the steps which are need to successfully migrate to new server-hardware. Where can you find the SSMW?

Well because it's a tool that changes, and is out-of-band to the main releases of Enterprise Vault, it's in it's own separate download location.  The latest can be found in this article:

Enterprise Vault Server Settings Migration Wizard

In the article you'll find a download link, recently 'fixed' list, and, a document explaining how to use the tool.

We’ve made great strides in evolving the Backup Exec platform to meet the needs of our users. In recent years, the market has increasingly indicated that the most critical qualities in backup and recovery are ensuring that the product performs well in their environment, delivers consistently successful recoveries, provides tools to determine if deployments are operating optimally, and supports new platform releases.  These qualities remain the cornerstone of our guidling principles for product development. Continuing on that path, today we are announcing the general availability of Backup Exec™ 15, an updated version of our award winning backup and recovery solution that delivers capabilities to help customers address their core needs while staying ahead of the changing landscape.

Hybrid is the Model

The hybrid cloud model has created new customer needs for tools that manage information in increasingly complex infrastructures. This complexity has heightened demand for support of new cloud-enabling capabilities and driven an acceleration of our efforts to deliver capabilities designed to address dynamic, modern infrastructures.

We have established a "Hybrid is the Model" motto across all of our product development plans and the Backup Exec 15 improvements are a direct expression of this approach:

• Backup Exec now extends its industry leading support for VMware with capabilities that deliver advanced integration with vSphere 6 including:
  
  • First solution for the small to mid-market to support VMware ESXi 6.0 and VMware vCenter 6.0
  • Software-defined storage support: VMware virtual SAN (VSAN), VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOLs)
  • Hyper-converged infrastructure compatibility: VMware EVO:RAIL
  • Enhanced virtual machine support: support for large virtual machines with over 2TB volumes and GPT disk, support for SAN restores and enhanced SATA disk support.
  • Compatibility with vSphere 6.0 security certificate management
• Extending Backup Exec’s support to more hybrid platforms, the latest release integrates with the AWS Storage Gateway VTL cloud service. As a result, IT organizations can accelerate agility by seamlessly migrating existing and new Backup Exec jobs to Amazon’s cloud storage via the storage gateway VTL. This seamless integration enables customers to take advantage of cloud storage benefits including automation, elasticity and Pay-as-you-Go directly from Backup Exec without spending the time and resources learning and managing new products or re-architecting environments.

Initial feedback on Backup Exec 15 indiciate that our hybrid approach is resonating extremely well with customers. “Using Backup Exec 15 means that I sleep well because our physical and virtual environment is fully protected,” said Caroline Kiel, Founder and CEO of PingUs Solutions. “I’d choose it over any other backup and recovery solution any day.”

Simplified Licensing Model

Finally, Backup Exec introduces a simplified licensing model with the new Backup Exec Capacity Edition Lite. The Backup Exec Capacity Edition Lite includes protection for VMware, Hyper-V, Microsoft Applications, Microsoft Windows Servers and more licensed in a simple per TB licensing model. This new edition provides comprehensive protection for virtual and physical environments, making capacity-based licensing and all-you-can-eat consumption in reach for all. The full Backup Exec Capacity Edition, also licensed per TB, provides all of the features and functionalities of Backup Exec including Data Deduplication.

Available Now

Backup Exec 15 is available today and can be downloaded directly from Symantec File Connect: https://fileconnect.symantec.com. If you’re interested in learning more, here are some useful links including an opportunity to get your hands on a FREE 60 day trial version:  

• Benefits of upgrading to Backup Exec 15 (www.backupexec.com/upgrade)
• Backup Exec 15 compatibility guide (www.backupexec.com/compatibilty)
• Backup Exec 15 Promotions (www.backupexec.com/save)
• Backup Exec 15 Trialware (www.backupexec.com/trybe)

Below links have all the information that you need to know before installing\upgrading to Backup Exec 15.

Backup Exec 15 Compatibility 

Backup Exec 15 Software Compatibility List.

Backup Exec 15 Hardware Compatibility List.

Backup Exec 15 Documentation

Backup Exec 15 Administrator's Guide.

Backup Exec 15 Read Me.

What's different in Backup Exec 15

Backup Exec 15 Command Line Interface (BEMCLI) Help

Backup Exec 15 Tuning and Performance Guide

Backup Exec 15 Trialware, Licensing and Support

Backup Exec 15 Trailware

How Agents and Options are Licensed in Symantec Backup Exec 15 (Licensing Guide)

Symantec Licensing Portal

Symantec FileConnect

Symantec Backup Exec 15 Capacity Edition

Symantec Technical and Customer Support Contact Details

Backup Exec 15 Upgrade and Fresh Install

About upgrading from previous versions of Backup Exec to Backup Exec 15

Installing Backup Exec 15 by using the Installation Wizard

Organizations with customer facing applications struggle to create a transparent or “frictionless” user experience and still provide the security needed to safeguard customer’s information.  If users need to type in long cumbersome passwords they complain.  As demonstrated by the backlash Amazon owned Twitch experienced after they told users they needed to recreate their passwords after a recent breach.  

According to a recent Forbes.com article http://onforb.es/1C7MqgC  “some said they couldn’t remember their password, others said when they tried to change their passwords to anything less than 20 characters they weren’t allowed, due to the site’s restrictions.”  One customer told the company on their Facebook page that “if users want to use bad passwords, that’s their problem, not yours”.  Surprisingly, Twitch made the announced it would reduce the limit on minimum password length to eight characters.

This is a classic example of convenience taking precedence over security.  Even though the various kinds of information that could have been comprised would have given a hacker a good chance of stealing a victim’s identity, users would rather have a convenient experience. 

When ask about the Twitch breach, authentication expert Per Thorsheim said “it didn’t make sense to lower the length requirement after a breach”.  The Forbes article concluded with the statement “if any more evidence was needed that the username-password paradigm is a flawed form of authentication, the Twitch breach has provided it”.

Passwords alone are inherently weak but adding security always raises concerns about making the experience too cumbersome and driving away customers.  From its inception Symantec VIP has been focused on providing strong authentication with a user friendly experience.  Many customer facing applications use VIP to provide second factor authentication whether it’s a 6 digit code or a 4-digit PIN.

This month Symantec announces a new release of VIP that will take convenience one step further and eliminated the password for iOS devices that support fingerprint authentication - then all you’ll need is a fingerprint!

Learn more about VIP at http://www.symantec.com/vip

In 1994, the first online purchase crossed the World Wide Web: a large pepperoni pizza with mushrooms and extra cheese from Pizza Hut. Over the next 20 years, e-commerce has exploded into a bustling economy, exceeding $1.2 trillion in sales in 2013.

This growth in online purchases rests upon a foundation of trust. People trust that the websites they use to track finances and make online purchases are secure and legitimate largely because of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates- otherwise known as that little green padlock in the URL bar of the browser.

SSL certificates verify that the provider is who they claim to be and also indicate secure connections between personal devices and company websites. Understanding SSL certificates is important to help prevent falling victim to scammers. Because at the end of the day, not all sites, or SSL certificates, are created equal.

Different types of certificates

Website owners purchase SSL certificates through Certification Authorities (CA). There are three different types of SSL certificates, each providing a different level of security. The problem is that, even though all of these certificates provide the safety padlock in the URL bar of a browser, along with the HTTPS (“S” indicating “secure”) in the address bar,  the levels of security between types of certificates differ greatly. This is why it is important to understand what kind of SSL certificate a site is using when looking to perform financial transactions or anything involving personal user data.

• Domain validated (DV): This simply verifies who owns the site. It’s a simple process where the CA will send an email to the website’s registered email address in order to verify their identity. No information about the company itself is required. Cybercriminals commonly use DV certificates because they are easy to obtain and can make a website appear more secure than it actually is. For instance, fraudsters may use DV certificates to lure consumers to phishing websites that look authentic, or to cloned websites that look legitimate, but are designed to steal sensitive information.
• Organizationally validated (OV): To receive an OV certificate, a CA must validate certain information, including the organization, physical location and its website’s domain name. This process typically takes a couple of days.
• Extended validation (EV): This certificate has the highest level of security and is the easiest to identify. In order to issue an EV certificate, the CA performs enhanced review of the applicant to increase the level of confidence in the business. The review process includes examination of corporate documents, confirmation of applicant identity and checking information with a third-party database. In addition to adding the padlock in the URL bar of the browser, the “S” part of HTTPS, this adds the company’s name in green in the browser URL bar.

Can you tell the difference?

Clearly, the last URL is an EV certificate. The first is the DV certificate and the second is an OV certificate, which both look identical to each other.

What can people do to stay safe?

Now knowing what a SSL certificate is, the three different types, and that DV-enabled sites pose a risk for scams, how can users reduce the risk of shopping or performing other sensitive transactions online?

1. Be aware! Just because a website has the padlock or “https” next to a URL doesn’t make it safe for financial transactions. Users have learned to look for those two things before conducting a transaction, which is exactly why cybercriminals are going through the trouble of obtaining SSL certificates in the first place – to look like a legitimate site.
2. Know how to look for the type of SSL certificate a website has. As a first step, look for visual cues indicating security, such as a lock symbol and green color in the address bar. Only EV-enabled websites include the company name in the web address bar. Browsers do not distinguish a DV certificate from an OV certificate, however. To make it easy to tell the difference, Norton has created a free tool. You simply paste a URL directly into the tool and it will tell you if the site is DV-, OV- or EV-enabled, with results clearly highlighting how safe a site is.
3. Only conduct transactions and provide sensitive data to sites that have OV or EV certificates. There’s a time and place for DV certificates, but that doesn’t include using them for e-commerce sites. If you drop a URL into the Norton tool and the tool reports that the site has a DV certificate, rethink conducting any type of transaction via that site. If it’s an OV or EV certificate site, you know that the business information has been confirmed.

Let’s face it – online shopping isn’t going away. Until the industry requires an OV or EV certificate for e-commerce sites or an easier way to identify the types of certificates, people will have to bear some of the burden of combatting cyber risks. Knowing the risks ahead of time, consumers are less likely to be duped by phishing websites.

Readers can find more information on SSL certificates in this recent Symantec whitepaper or by visiting our Trust Services page.

As a founding signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP) (a joint initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact), Symantec has been a key stakeholder in one of the leading global dialogues on gender diversity. 

Recently, I was honored to attend the WEP’s Leadership Group Meeting and Annual Event in New York City. As part of the CSW59/Beijing+20 (2015) program[1], the event brought together over 350 individuals - the leadership of the WEP principles, government, business leaders and experts in gender equity and empowerment to “focus on concrete steps and actions that business can take to advance gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community”. 

Additionally, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the World Conference on Women in Beijing and International Women’s Day, WEP rang the bell for gender diversity at NASDAQ to culminate an international bell ringing that began in Egypt and traveled to Nigeria, Poland, Sweden, Turkey and India to raise awareness of the importance of gender equality.

I was amazed at the diversity of attendees at the Annual Event, and I cannot recall an event I have been to that brought together such prestigious attendees from so many different regions of the world. The varying perspectives and cultures were fascinating.

The keynote was delivered by former Secretary of State of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who discussed the progress that has been made since the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in 1995 in Beijing. Secretary Clinton was joined by the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, Academy Award winning actress Geena Davis, and others providing impactful case studies and perspectives of how the WEPs have been applied around the world.

Former Secretary of State of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton, addresses attendees of the WEP Annual Event.

Changing Lives through Economic Empowerment

A key theme throughout the two days was the importance of economic empowerment – how financial stability plays such a pivotal role in the advancement of women.

For example, one project aimed to empower women in the Central Mountains of Guanajuato in Mexico where males tend to go work in the US to earn money for their families back home. Over time the men often find a new life in the US and the women are left struggling, lacking the skills and money to support their children. 

17 years ago, Karla Rodriguez Helguero initiated a project that was meant to empower women by producing marmalade of various fruits (pineapple, apple, mango, strawberry). During the first year these women received an income under $80 USD per month. In 2006, the Toks (a restaurant chain in Mexico, with more than 130+ restaurants nationwide) met the women and made a strawberry marmalade order for $25,000 USD. In 2014, these women sold more than $500,000 USD to the restaurant chain. Karla and Toks have been social agents benefiting and changing the lives of more than 120 families of the community through education, health, feeding, housing and clothing.

Tackling Unconscious Bias

I was also invited to join a panel on Unconscious Bias that examined how our individual biases contribute to inequality. I elaborated on my experience as a diversity leader and the reasons why Unconscious Bias has become central to advancing our diversity and inclusion program at Symantec. Stay tuned for my article in a few weeks on Unconscious Bias at Symantec and our training for all employees beginning with executives and people managers.

(UN Global Compact/Andres Wong) Representing Symantec at the WEP’s Annual Event. The panel “Tackling Unconscious Bias” discussed the importance of addressing how our inherent stereotypes and biases contribute to inequality.

What’s Next?

Our ability to attract, develop, promote, retain and fully engage a wide range of talented individuals enhances innovation in our products and services and improves our competitiveness. For this reason, I am proud to endorse the 10-pt WEP’s Stakeholder Statement that outlines how business, the UN and Governments can scale up engagement to deliver for women and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As I reflect on the progress that has been made over the last 15 years, there is a lot to be proud of. After the WEP event we were all left contemplating the role we play, the impacts we can make. How can I as an individual, as a team leading diversity at Symantec, and the company as a whole continue to leverage the impact of the WEPs?  How can we be evangelists for this great cause?

This event was focused on gender equity and diversity to advance women in business and their communities.  However, it was clear to me that many, if not all, of the actions and steps discussed during this event are global efforts designed to advance all communities, business and governments.  With that being said, I was pleased to be able to represent Symantec and provide my point of view as a male advocate for gender equity and empowerment.   

Restore is successful but under the folders i dont find any files

its with folders the issue is same none of them is having a single file at all.

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