Gen Digital Sees Cyber Threats Escalate as Scams and Breaches Continue to Rise
As Gen Digital (formerly NortonLifeLock) concluded its Q3 fiscal year 2025 earnings call on January 30, 2025, the company highlighted a stark reality: cyber threats are escalating at an alarming rate. With nearly 15 billion attacks blocked globally in calendar year 2024 alone, Vincent Pilette, CEO of Gen Digital, emphasized that consumers worldwide are facing an increasingly dynamic threat landscape.
The number of scams and breaches is not only increasing but also becoming more sophisticated, with bad actors deploying believable lures to compromise victims. According to Gen Digital's researchers, a staggering 90% of all cyber threats in 2024 began with a scam, up from just 30% in 2020. This trend has been fueled by the proliferation of breaches, including high-profile incidents like the National Public data breach and Power School breach that have exposed entire families to risks.
In response to this escalating threat, Gen Digital has continued to innovate on its comprehensive Cyber Safety portfolio for consumers. The company reported mid-single-digit growth in Cyber Safety bookings and revenue during Q3, while delivering a fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth for EPS up 15%. This solid execution is attributed to the disciplined efforts of Gen's team to serve the needs of comprehensive Cyber Safety.
One key initiative highlighted by Pilette was the success of Norton Genie, an easy-to-use tool launched just over a year ago that helps detect scams coming via email, text, video files, or websites. With 2 million downloads of the product, Genie's AI engine can continuously trend on extensive data sets and real-life scans submitted by users, catching newer threats with almost 100% efficacy.
The company plans to extend the power of Genie into its Norton 360 product family, providing seamless proactive and comprehensive scan protection as an AI-powered scam assistant. This enhanced version will be available in all memberships, with advanced features like core blocking, tax filtering, and scam reimbursement included in higher membership tiers or available as an add-on for existing customers.
Gen Digital has also taken a significant step by teaming up with Qualcomm at CES to showcase an early preview of how AI-powered scam detection can be integrated into neural processing units (NPUs) embedded into smartphones. This innovative approach demonstrates the company's commitment to leveraging AI to combat emerging threats and protect consumers' digital lives.
The record 40 million direct customers of Gen Digital, up nearly 400,000 sequentially and over 1 million compared to last year, are a testament to the effectiveness of its comprehensive Cyber Safety portfolio. As Pilette noted, these solid results demonstrate the company's consistent execution in serving consumer needs for comprehensive Cyber Safety.
