Good buddy Dennis Howlett has uncovered, through some clever financial detective work (Dennis is a former accountant), some very dodgy dealings.

It seems that the CEO of Symantec, John Thompson, made $1.5m profit on the sale of Symantec shares very shortly before the announcement to the market of losses by Symantec (and the inevitable share price fall that ensued).

This looks very bad and reeks of insider knowledge (whether or not that is, in fact, the case).

Companies engaged in security need to be whiter than white. When the CEO’s reputation is on the line like this, Symantec needs to explain this one quickly to everyone’s satisfaction of John Thompson needs to resign.