What is happening?
When Broadcom acquired Symantec in 2019, they continued to support Symantec Endpoint Protection but chose in late 2020 to end-of-life the product. As CrowdStrike became the Penn-recommended endpoint detection and response solution, there was no longer a need to keep a relationship with Symantec.
Who will be affected?
ISC has identified two populations of devices that require solutions for moving away from Symantec: managed devices owned by the University and personally owned devices by University constituents.
When will this occur?
The contract for individually owned systems ends on May 24th, 2022. Though these endpoints will still provide protection for some time after the contract ends, people should plan to transition away from SEP as soon as possible.
The contract with Broadcom for institutionally managed devices ends on June 1st, 2022. Schools/centers should plan to have SEP removed from these endpoints prior to the June 1st date.
We have created a toolkit including technical removal guidance and recommended procedures as well as messaging templates that you can use to communicate with your school or center.
Please click this link to access the toolkit: Penn SEP Retirement Toolkit.
What is the recommendation moving forward?
For University-owned systems, ISC recommends using CrowdStrike or an equivalent endpoint detection and response solution. If you have SEP deployed alongside CrowdStrike, we recommend first removing SEP from those endpoints and then applying more aggressive prevention settings to ensure CrowdStrike is providing the protection levels you need.
For individually owned devices, ISC has acquired licensing for Faculty, Staff, and Students to use Sophos Home. Sophos Home is a trusted antivirus platform and allows installation on up to 10 devices. To download and install this software, please visit the Penn Software Licensing Portal here: Sophos Home. Please ensure that SEP is fully removed, and the device has been restarted prior to downloading and installing this new software.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Client Care online at http://supportcenter.upenn.edu, by email at help@isc.upenn.edu, or by phone at 215-898-1000.