Symantec's senior vice president for information security, Brian Dye, has come out and declared that antivirus software is "dead." In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Dye discussed how antivirus utilities - including Symantec's own Norton suite - can only catch just under half of all attacks nowadays. The primary aim of any antivirus has become to minimize damage that comes as a result of a successful hack or attack; and this is something that isn't specific to Symantec.

This is not to say that Symantec is giving up on its prized software, no matter how "dead" Norton may be. While the company will continue pushing Norton, which makes up more than 40 percent of the company's revenue, it will also start selling other services to work hand-in-hand with the software. Corporate customers will be sold both recovery services and threat briefings, and Symantec is working on technology that will identify malware trying to disguise itself as a normal app. In the meantime, hang onto your antivirus - just be aware that you might need an extra layer of protection to go with it.