Cyber Attacks: New Battle Front
The website of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was unresponsive and unavailable after reports that the website had been attacked by internet hackers in Washington June 15, 2011. The Lulz Security group of hackers said in a Tweet that it had launched an attack on the public Web site of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Reuters

Symantec, the No. 1 developer of cyber security software, could see full-year revenue leap by nearly 10 percent because of "an increase in security attacks," said Brent Thill, analyst with UBS.

The analyst forecast the Mountain View, California-based company's revenue could hit $6.78 billion in the year ending next March, with earnings of $1.60 a share. Thill kept a buy rating on the shares.

Last week, at the Defcon computer security conference in Las Vegas, Symantec rival McAfee attracted global attention by reporting its Operation Shady RAT had detected more than 70 intrusions of government and corporate sites by sophisticated hackers. McAfee was acquired by Intel earlier this year.

Although Symantec shares have fallen about 14 percent in the past week in the general market decline, Thill said its profitability could be linked to "a highly predictable revenue stream" as large accounts sign up for multi-year accounts.

He also said Symantec might benefit from acquiring rivals, while not specifying any targets. Symantec reported cash and short-term investments of nearly $3 billion on July 1.

Several venture-backed security companies have filed IPOs recently, including Imperva, of Redwood Shores, California. Other private companies in the sector include Palo Alto Networks, of Mountain View, California, and qi Labs, of Waltham, Massachusetts.

In May, Symantec bought private Clearwell Systems for $390 million.

Symantec shares traded around $16.23, down 5%, in late trading Monday.

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