Verisign sold to the devil – Symantec
Well hell has frozen over in the security world. Tried and true, though expensive and unweilding, Verisign has sold their soul to the devil incarnate. Like many great companies in the past (Veritas anyone?) their SSL & Security arm is set to be absorbed by the antivirus crap factory.
After all of the time I took to get my MPKI out of various companies into Veritas’ single solution, now I have to pull them all out and go to someone else.
Why is Symantec the devil? Consider this – their bloatware has single handedly changed what used to be a very streamlined market into a CPU/Memory upgrade fest for consumers. Symantec anti-virus, worse than any other, takes more CPU and Memory cycles than most consumer applications. They seem to have very little concern for consumers, as evidenced by both my anecdotal personal IT experiences over the past 20 years as well as numerous consumer complaints. Their “SARC”, while once great, is a pile of steaming horse dung compared to the nimble and concise operations of E-Set, Kaperskey and F-Secure.
I swore 10 years ago never to give Symantec another dime if I could avoid it (and I can’t entirely because BackupExec is still the best on the market). Now that they have the most trusted name in SSL in their pocket I have to ask myself : Do I really want a company who has it’s hands in everyones data security already, to be the author of my SSL certificates?
The google-hating side of me says NO to that question, though the google-appreciator inside of me says it may help innovate and drive prices down. Then again, the apple-hater in me says that too much consolidation and is a bad thing, products should be diversified among different carriers to prevent monopolistic tendencies. The apple-lover in me says perhaps they will make things better – but the symantec-hater in me says that historically the company has always failed at that.
No, it is time for consumerism to make a stand with dollars – the only real feedback a company recognizes. I have dropped my MPKI on the floor, including the credits that went with it and will be allowing my VCCE to expire as well. I called my, awesome, sales guy Michael and let him know that while he was great – I couldn’t support the company who had just taken the reigns. I am taking a stand against Symantec and all that is unholy about them and their ways. I can’t believe that many of the huge names that have trusted Verisign for SSL certificates will move over quietly, including the many Governments who make use of them.
