Symantec 2008 Annual Report Download - page 139

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
(a) Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
The SEC defines the term “disclosure controls and procedures” to mean a company’s controls and other
procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the reports that it files or submits
under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported, within the time periods specified in the
SEC’s rules and forms. “Disclosure controls and procedures” include, without limitation, controls and procedures
designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by an issuer in the reports that it files or submits under
the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the issuer’s management, including its principal executive
and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions
regarding required disclosure. Our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer have concluded, based
on an evaluation of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and
15d-15(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) by our management, with the participation of our
Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective
as of the end of the period covered by this report.
(b) Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial
reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) for
Symantec. Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer,
has conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of March 28,
2008, based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of
Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).
Our management has concluded that, as of March 28, 2008, our internal control over financial reporting was
effective based on these criteria.
The Company’s independent registered public accounting firm has issued an attestation report regarding its
assessment of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of March 28, 2008, which appears on
page 66.
(c) Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended March 28, 2008
that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial
reporting.
(d) Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls
Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that our
disclosure controls and procedures or our internal controls will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no
matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of
the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource
constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent
limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and
instances of fraud, if any, within our Company have been detected.
Item 9B. Other Information
None
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