Saturday, March 18, 2006
McCaffee’s big McOops!!!!
Fox news says that Anti-virus vendor McAfee is scrambling to contain the damage from a faulty definition update that incorrectly flagged hundreds of legitimate software programs as W95/CTX, a low-risk Windows 95 virus that was first detected in 2004.
In the new file released by McCaffee thatwas shipped late on March 10 with definitions for a wide range of new malware threats had the unfortunate ability to cause damage when it quarantined or deleted several widely deployed applications, including Microsoft Excel, Macromedia Flash Player, Adobe Update Manager and the Google Toolbar Installer.
McAfee acknowledged they had made a serious mistake and when it was detected quickly shipped a new virus pattern file but for many users of the products the damage was already done.
The McAfee the faulty update caused problems for customers running its VirusScan Enterprise, Managed VirusScan, VirusScan Online, LinuxShield and VirusScan (consumer) products.
The incorrect detections did not occur with McAfee's OAS (On Access Scanner), nor with gateway or e-mail scanners.
