Symantec Launches Initiative to Help Provide Security and Identity Theft Protection for Foster Youth

Pilot Program Launches in Three U.S. Cities with Nonprofit Partners

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – March 20, 2018 – Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC), the world’s leading cyber security company, today launched Fostering A Secure Tomorrow (FAST), an initiative to help foster youth protect and restore their identities with the support of Norton and LifeLock experts, solutions and services.

Young people in foster care face a range of unique risks when it comes to identity protection and cyber security. Before reaching the age of 18, many foster youths have already become targets for identity theft and had their credit destroyed.

“Foster youth move often, and more people have access to their personally identifiable information, which makes them vulnerable to identity theft,” said Fran Rosch, executive vice president and general manager, Consumer Business, Symantec. “We are uniquely equipped, with our Norton and LifeLock consumer solutions and services, to help these kids, as we are a world-leading cyber security organization that can provide not only the security software, but the educational training and restoration services as well, to help these young people learn to better protect their information and restore their identities when necessary.”

Symantec has initially partnered with three local nonprofit organizations—The Bill Wilson Center, Aid to Adoption of Special Kids (AASK), and Promises2Kids —and with a broader network of community groups and organizations including the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) and TechSoup, to reach young people with critical needs. Symantec experts will offer cyber security education, access to donated Symantec/Norton software products and restorative services from LifeLock. In addition to providing resources and services to young victims through the program’s three nonprofit partners, Symantec employees will mentor youth, provide program training and act as advocates on behalf of the program, working with public officials to build stronger policies that protect foster children.

“Nationwide, there is an opportunity to directly educate at least 76,000 foster youths ages 16 and older on ways to prevent identity theft and credit fraud,” said Eva Velasquez, CEO and president, Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Symantec on this innovative pilot program and helping them with research to uncover the latest data around this critical issue. Our goal is to uncover important findings that will help us all to improve our approach to how we can better protect the identities of these foster children and young adults.”  

To learn more about Symantec’s FAST program visit: go.symantec.com/FAST.

About Symantec

Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC), the world’s leading cyber security company, helps organizations, governments and people secure their most important data wherever it lives. Organizations across the world look to Symantec for strategic, integrated solutions to defend against sophisticated attacks across endpoints, cloud and infrastructure. Likewise, a global community of more than 50 million people and families rely on Symantec’s Norton suite of products for protection at home and across all of their devices. Symantec operates one of the world’s largest civilian cyber intelligence networks, allowing it to see and protect against the most advanced threats. For additional information, please visit www.symantec.com or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.