Symantec Research Labs Announces 2011 Graduate Fellowship Recipients

Program recognizes exceptional graduate students; offers mentorships by top industry researchers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the 2011 recipients of its Symantec Research Labs (SRL) Graduate Fellowship. The Fellowship is awarded to promising graduate students who demonstrate leadership and technological prowess in confronting some of the world’s most complex security, storage and systems management and challenges.

After a competitive selection process, the SRL team has awarded Prateek Saxena, Jiyong Jang and Leyla Bilge with one-year fellowships that cover tuition fees and stipends to fund ongoing research in their respective areas of expertise. The recipients will also gain first hand research and development experiences through guidance and mentorship from a top scientist at SRL during the fellowship period, as well as use of Symantec’s Worldwide Intelligence Network Environment (WINE), a research platform that provides unique access to sampled security data feeds used internally at SRL. Past recipients have made substantial contributions to Symantec’s market-leading products, prestigious industry groups and the academic community at large.

“The Symantec Research Labs Graduate Fellowship program is in its fifth consecutive year and continues to be a valuable research and development asset for Symantec’s effort to develop creative and viable solutions to real-world business and technology challenges,” said Joe Pasqua, vice president of Symantec Research Labs. “This year was extremely competitive given the number of outstanding applications we received. The 2011 Fellowship winners represent some of the best and brightest students in their respective fields.”

Prateek Saxena is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. Saxena uses a sophisticated analysis of Web application code to uncover vulnerabilities that attackers could otherwise exploit to harm online users. His research has already helped to secure popular cloud services. With Symantec’s support, he will be able to continue fighting the malware epidemic as the transition continues to thinner, more mobile clients and cloud computing.

Jiyong Jang is a doctoral candidate at Carnegie Mellon University. Jang has created more effective algorithm for detecting and classifying malware, which enables researchers to better understand and protect against new online threats. His latest research is focused on doubling the current speed of antivirus scans while using only half the memory.

Leyla Bilge is a doctoral candidate at Institute Eurecom. Bilge is combating malicious Web domains by monitoring traffic in the domain name system (DNS). Her efforts have shed light on the dark corners of the Internet where spammers, phishers and botnets mount attacks from, leading to a safer Web environment for online users.

The SRL Fellowship is one of several efforts Symantec undertakes with top U.S. and European universities to foster technical leadership, generate innovative ideas and develop next-generation technologies to solve real-world problems.


About Symantec Research Labs

Symantec Research Labs (SRL) is Symantec’s global research organization and has played a leading role in developing and commercializing numerous cutting-edge technologies across Symantec’s business areas. Commercialized technologies from the group include industry leading rootkit protection, innovative browser protection technology to proactively block future exploits of known vulnerabilities, Symantec’s first anti-spam technology, generic exploit blocking technology that proactively blocks fast-spreading threats, online consumer security services, and technology to help protect our nation’s critical power-grid infrastructure. SRL also partners with outside organizations on joint projects, through its university and government research efforts.

About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.