The security software giant acknowledged last week that hackers had broken into its network when they stole source code of some of the company’s software.

At first, two weeks ago, Symantec spokesman Cris Paden stated a hacker made off with source code of Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Symantec Antivirus 10.2, back in 2006. Cris otherwise downplayed the seriousness of the theft.

A few days later, however, Paden issued a revised statement, saying source code of Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton Utilities, Norton GoBack and pcAnywhere, had been stolen.

Having stolen the source code for these products means hackers, malware creators and other scum of society can create malware that exploits vulnerabilities in Symantec’s software, thus making it easier to render the antivirus useless during a malware infection, or in the case of pcAnywhere (a remote access suite that Symantec sells), opening the door for unauthorized remote access to computers with pcAnywhere installed on it.

In the specific case of pcAnywhere, the hacker who is believed to be responsible for the source code steal announced a few days ago the code was being released to the “blackhat” community for free-for-all exploiting.

I personally don’t recommend Symantec products, and haven’t for a long time. But with these developments I’d really suggest to stay away or move away from Symantec products.