Symantec Survey Says Canadians Struggling With Time Consuming Online Forms And Multiple Computer Passwords

Toronto, ON. - December 3, 2003 - As if holiday shopping wasn't enough to drive most consumers over the edge, the first-ever, national Symantec Canada Password Management Survey released today, reveals that Canadians are memorizing random alphanumeric passwords for multiple computer applications and are filling out time consuming online shopping forms manually.

The Branham Group, an international consulting firm, polled over 700 Canadians coast-to-coast to identify where they keep their passwords, how they come up with them, how often they change them, whether or not they use the same passwords for multiple applications or find online forms to be too time consuming.

The survey gauged Canadians' password management techniques as well as their feelings about the time it takes to fill out online forms. According to the survey, 69 per cent of respondents keep their passwords in their heads. Twenty-four per cent indicated they keep their passwords written down. More than half of respondents also indicated that they found online forms to be too time consuming. Of that fifty-three per cent, 56 per cent were male and 50 per cent were female.

"As we head into the holiday season, password and online form management is bound to be a challenge for consumers," said Michael Murphy, Canadian General Manager at Symantec. "To manage this information effectively, users need to be able to store passwords, telephone numbers, addresses, credit card numbers and other confidential information on personal computers using strong encryption that protects data from unauthorized access. It is a key component of an integrated approach to securing personal information and also ensures that users are able to take advantage of the full functionality of the Web."

Adhering to password and online form filling best practices is key to securing personal computers. Using multiple alphanumeric passwords and changing passwords often, are examples of these practices. In addition, adopting a system that keeps passwords and confidential information used for online form filling such as credit card numbers and addresses secure further enables consumers to keep valuable information private while making it faster and easier to fill out online forms.

Other survey findings:

• Common password choices? Nearly one out of every four respondents uses a family or pet's name. Only two per cent indicated that they use a phone number.
  
  
• How often do consumers change their passwords? More than one out of every three respondents noted that they never change their passwords. Thirty-five per cent of those respondents were male and 41 per cent were female.
  
  
• Are people using different passwords for multiple applications? More than half of all respondents indicated that they do use the same password for different applications. Only 22 per cent change them monthly.
  
  

To address consumers' growing number of random passwords and limited time to fill out online forms, Symantec offers Norton Password Manager 2004, the most comprehensive password manager on the market. Norton Password Manager keeps users' passwords secure and easy to manage. It can store passwords and other personal information for each family member. Then it automatically completes the data needed for e-mail logins, shopping orders, banking, and other online activities-all from the safety of the PC. Norton Password Manager 2004 is also available as a component of Norton SystemWorks 2004, Symantec's best-of-breed problem-solving suite for maintaining optimal PC performance.

About The Branham Group
Branham Group Inc. is a leading international "Go-to-Market" consulting firm with a proven formula for helping information technology companies achieve market success. Branham conducts work not only in Canada, but also in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, providing the firm with a global market perspective. Branham assists companies in the three critical areas to improve business performance - Planning, Marketing and Partnering.

About Symantec
Symantec, the world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions to individuals, enterprises and service providers. The company is a leading provider of client, gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, Internet content and email filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises and service providers around the world. Symantec's Norton brand of consumer security products is a leader in worldwide retail sales and industry awards. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has worldwide operations in 36 countries. For more information, please visit www.symantec.com.

Symantec's Canadian operations are headquartered in Toronto with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver. For more information on Symantec products or current promotions, contact the Canadian office at (416) 441-3676 or access Symantec's Canadian Web site at www.symantec.ca. Symantec is an active member of the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST).

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