A hacker claiming to be associated with Mumbai-based Lords of Dharmaraja released the source code for Symantec's pcAnywhere software that allows users to remotely connect to their PCs. The hacker had earlier demanded a one-time payment of USD 50,000 to not release the source code.

The negotiations between the hacker and Symantec fell through, but bought the security company enough time to push a vulnerability update to the affected software. Symantec asserted that they would not be able to transfer such a large amount in one go due to corporate red tape and international transaction laws, while the hacker maintained that the payment be made in full. Symantec tried to offer USD 2,500 in three installments to the hacker as a gesture of goodwill, which was promptly met with rejection. Symantec then offered to transfer the money through PayPal, however, both options were rejected by the hacker for the fear of being traced.

Along with pcAnywhere, the hacker has also released the source code to Symantec's 2006 versions of Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition and Norton Internet Security, but users are assured that this source code is dated and would not affect the current builds of the products.

Tags: anonymous, code, hacker, mumbai, negotiation, norton, pcanywhere, security, source, sourcecode, symantec

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