MANILA, Philippines - Symantec Corp. recently introduced new enhancements to its Small and Mid-sized Business (SMB) Protection Portfolio, providing SMB customers with greater choice and flexibility for protecting the information that drives their businesses. The new Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition, will provide SMBs with complete protection including endpoint and messaging security, as well as desktop, laptop and server backup and recovery to ensure business continuity. Symantec is giving SMB customers more choices for protecting their growing businesses with hosted options for e-mail and web security and new lower pricing for Symantec Protection Suite Small Business Edition.

“SMBs today are handling valuable information, such as bank account details, credit card information, and customer and employee records. Having the right information at the right time can mean the difference between success and going out of business,” said Luichi Robles, country manager of Symantec Philippines. “Today’s SMBs need complete protection that can be easily deployed and managed while providing the highest level of protection.”

Changing Threat Landscape for SMBs

Information is critical to businesses of all sizes and SMBs are facing increased risks to their confidential information—including bank account numbers, credit card information, and customer and employee records. Now more than ever, cybercriminals are going after the smaller businesses that do not have the high-level security of their enterprise counterparts.

Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report XV reveals continued growth in both the volume and sophistication of cybercrime attacks globally. Cybercriminals are going after confidential information, especially credit card information and bank account credentials, as such information are highly sourced for and sold at lucrative prices in the underground economy.

“Cybercriminals are going after SMBs, and those who are only using antivirus as a security solution are not protected completely, putting their businesses at risk. Findings from a Symantec survey found of the SMBs that have experienced a cyber attack, the biggest costs reported were lost productivity and revenue,” said Eric Hoh, Symantec’s vice president for Asia South region. “Symantec recommends that SMBs take a comprehensive approach in information protection, which includes educating employees, safeguarding important business information, implementing an effective backup and recovery plan, and securing e-mail and web assets.”

Beyond Basic Security

Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition will provide SMBs with a new level of complete protection, helping them safeguard their businesses from external threats, internal threats and information loss—threats that traditional antivirus products can’t address. The suite will protect endpoints like laptops and desktops, provide messaging security, and can prevent data loss with advanced content filtering at the mail gateway. In case of an outbreak or a system failure, the suite’s backup and recovery capabilities will help SMBs recover individual files and folders or complete Windows systems quickly, even to dissimilar hardware or virtual environments.

Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition will combine security and backup and recovery software technologies to deliver complete information protection and keep SMBs’ desktops, servers and applications running smoothly in case of disruption. Customers will be proactively protected with real-time security intelligence from the Symantec Global Intelligence Network, which provides early threat warnings and automatic backups when new threats emerge.

Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition will simplify IT administration and will lower total cost of ownership by enabling SMBs to purchase and manage backup, recovery and security for the entire organization in a single suite. The suite can be quickly deployed with minimal disruption to a customer’s IT environment.
N
ew Hosted Options Bring the Power of Cloud to SMBs

Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition will give customers the flexibility to deploy on-site and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technologies with add-on options for hosted e-mail and Web security from Symantec Hosted Services. These SaaS offerings will help SMBs secure and manage e-mail and Web traffic through a single Web based management console while greatly reducing the need to manage hardware or software for messaging security on site.

In addition, Symantec recently launched Symantec Hosted Endpoint Protection, a new SaaS offering for SMBs who wish to deploy comprehensive security for their computer systems without the need for additional hardware or management software.

Right Sized, Right Priced Protection

SMBs cite tight budgets and lack of IT resources as top barriers to security. With the introduction of Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition, Symantec’s SMB customers will have a choice when it comes to the suite that best meets their information protection and budget needs. For the most cost-conscious small businesses, Symantec is lowering the price of Symantec Protection Suite Small Business Edition, which provides endpoint and messaging security with backup and recovery for desktops and laptops, by 40 percent.

More information is available at www.symantec.com.