Chennai: Information technology security major Symantec Corporation will release its new enterprise security software codenamed Hamlet this year. According to chief technology officer Mark F Bregman, new security product has taken into account all the security concerns of the enterprise segment

Interestingly there is an Indian connection to this Hamlet. Outlining that vice president-India Technical Operations Veritas Software India Pvt Ltd Anil Chakravarthy, said, "The data leakage component / module is made at Pune and some of the modules are tested there." Veritas Software is the wholly owned subsidiary of the American company and has a development centre at Pune.

According to him, Veritas is developing security products in India since 1993 for its parent company. The company has around 2200 employees and is the largest site for Symantec outside the US. Nearly 36 per cent of Symantec''s global research and development (R&D) patent are originates from India. "One in eight engineers in our company have contributed towards product innovation."

Recently the company set up a development centre in Chennai with an idea of employing around 1000 people.

Meanwhile Symantec is promoting Security 2.0 concept that encompasses not only the methods to protect the devices (personal computers, servers and others) but also the information and the interactions stored in the computers, servers and other devices. "Security 2.0 looks at the new threats, new protective mechanisms, new delivery methods and also new business models," said Bregman.

According to him, critical corporate information lies in a structured format – in the data base- and in unstructured formats like emails, files. Referring to a study which stated that 75 per cent of all intellectual property is contained in emails and similar percentage of all litigation involves some kind of email discoveries he said that such critical information have to be protected against outside attacks.

For security product companies like Symantec, India offers a good growth opportunity what with the growing penetration of broadband and online transactions and data security being a major challenge.

"Eighty six per cent of the computer attacks are targeted at home via Bot network. In major cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore nearly 78 per cent of the computers are Bot infected. There are several phising websites hosted in India," said Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, Symantec India.

According to him the Internet has changed the way Indians transact, shop and interact. The Indians with debit cards have grown from 0.25 million in 1999 to over 50 million today with Rs1,000 billion in transaction value. This has thrown open a great opportunity for security product companies.

Recently F-Secure another American anti virus company tied up with Hyderabad based S V Electronics to distribute its security products. "Broadband connectivity is rapidly increasing in India and the growth generates tremendous opportunity for F-Secure to offer our cutting edge products to the customers here," said Jari Heinonen, vice president, APAC Region, F-Secure Corporation.