Is there any relief in sight after McAfees antivirus update error brought down Windows XP computers?”
This week isn’t a good week to be working at McAfee. A serious error in a virus definition somehow slipped through and got pushed out to live subscribers. The result for affected systems was devastating–the quarantine or deletion of a crucial system file meant that these systems were effectively crippled and had to be repaired manually. You can read more about how the McAfee AV update fiasco brought down thousands of systems here. This debacle adds McAfee to the hall of shame, joining Trend Micro, which delivered a bad antivirus update two years ago, and security vendor AVG’s botched update last year. Indeed, one frustrated commenter simply called the rogue update the “McVirus.” Given the amount of work required to repair affected (or should I say afflicted) systems, the fact that only Windows XP SP3 systems running a specific version of the McAfee antivirus product are affected is unlikely to yield any comfort. As bad as the situation was, what took place could have been infinitely w
This week isn’t a good week to be working at McAfee. A serious error in a virus definition somehow slipped through and got pushed out to live subscribers. The result for affected systems was devastating–the quarantine or deletion of a crucial system file meant that these systems were effectively crippled and had to be repaired manually. You can read more about how the McAfee AV update fiasco brought down thousands of systems here. This debacle adds McAfee to the hall of shame, joining Trend Micro, which delivered a bad antivirus update two years ago, and security vendor AVG’s botched update last year. Indeed, one frustrated commenter simply called the rogue update the “McVirus.” Given the amount of work required to repair affected (or should I say afflicted) systems, the fact that only Windows XP SP3 systems running a specific version of the McAfee antivirus product are affected is unlikely to yield any comfort. As bad as the situation was, what took place could have been infinitely w
McAfee is scrambling to undo the damage done by a faulty antivirus update that brought down Windows XP computers around the world, but the situation looks grim according to other vendors. Amrit Williams, CTO of security management system company Big Fix, told USA Today that there’s no way to automate the process of fixing affected computers. Every machine will need to be repaired individually, he said, noting the process could take days or weeks. McAfee’s antivirus upgrade causes computers running Windows XP Service Pack 3 to shut down within a minute of starting up. The problem was caused by virus definition file 5958, which quarantined svchost.exe, a vital system file. McAfee says the update only hit 0.5 percent of its customers’ computers, but the damage is widespread, hitting hospitals and municipal services along with countless companies large and small. There’s a significant backlash on Twitter.
