Symantec POV on Third Party Testing

Symantec is committed to the highest levels of integrity and security on behalf of our customers, employees, and partners. We rely upon testing from third-party organizations for an unbiased view of the effectiveness of our products. We also believe that ethical, fair and transparent testing methodologies across all vendors is fundamental to provide consumers with accurate and unbiased evaluations. Organizations such as AMTSO help provide consistency and a standard of excellence for testing within the industry for the benefit of end users. 

Much of the security community has expressed concern and frustration with both the methodology and lack of transparency associated with the testing performed by NSS Labs. In our own experience we have felt concern regarding both their technical capability, as well as the practice of the NSS Labs “pay to play” model in relation to public tests.

We believe that testing, when done with appropriate technical rigor and without bias, is vital to ensure the ongoing improvement of our products and those of our competitors, resulting in a more competitive marketplace that benefits both consumers and enterprises with more effective protection against constantly evolving cyber threats. We are highly supportive of the testing organizations that adhere to the highest ethical standards, including those recommended by the AMTSO.

We are aware of the lawsuit filed by NSS Labs and we believe that their claims against us are entirely baseless. While it’s understandable that NSS Labs’ desire for profits may be inherently at odds with a non-profit, standards-based organization such as AMTSO, the integrity of the testing process should be of utmost importance, starting with transparency and equity for all participants. We welcome the opportunity to bring the discussion of fair and open testing further into the public conversation, while also shining a light on certain business practices within the testing industry.