$50,000 to keep PCAnywhere and Norton Antivirus code private

As part of a sting operation, Symantec told a hacker group that it would pay $50,000 to keep the source code for some of its flagship security products off the internet, the company confirmed to CNET on Monday evening.

An email exchange revealing the extortion attempt posted to Pastebin on Monday shows a purported Symantec employee named Sam Thomas negotiating payment with an individual named 'Yamatough' to prevent the release of PCAnywhere and Norton Antivirus code. Yamatough is the Twitter identity of an individual or group that had previously threatened to release the source code for Norton Antivirus.

"We will pay you $50,000.00 USD total," Thomas said in an email dated Thursday. "However, we need assurances that you are not going to release the code after payment. We will pay you $2,500 a month for the first three months. Payments start next week. After the first three months you have to convince us you have destroyed the code before we pay the balance. We are trusting you to keep your end of the bargain."

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