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McAfee false-positive glitch fells PCs worldwide
theregister.co.uk ^

Posted on 07/03/2009 8:11:11 PM PDT by Gomez

IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan attacked core system files, in some cases causing the machines to display the dreaded blue screen of death.

Details are still coming in, but forums here and here show that it's affecting McAfee customers in Germany, Italy, and elsewhere. A UK-based Reg reader, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized by his employer to speak to the press, said the glitch simultaneously leveled half of a customer's 140 machines after they updated the latest virus signature file.

"Literally half of the machines were down with this McAfee anti-virus message IDing valid programs as having this trojan," the IT consultant said. "Literally half the office switched off their PCs and were just twiddling their thumbs."

When the consultant returned to his office he was relieved that his own laptop, which also uses VirusScan, was working normally. Then, suddenly, when it installed the latest McAfee DAT file, his computer was also smitten. The anti-virus program identified winvnc.exe and several other legitimate files as malware and attempted to quarantine them. With several core system files out of commission, the machine was rendered an expensive paperweight.

(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: tm
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1 posted on 07/03/2009 8:11:12 PM PDT by Gomez
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To: ShadowAce

.


2 posted on 07/03/2009 8:12:52 PM PDT by Gomez (killer of threads)
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To: Gomez

Oh, this should be fun.

So, merely downloading the latest virus definitions from McAfee apparently contained some sort of malicious code that caused Windows PC’s to go into an “autoimmune” attack, basically?

Makes me glad I’m a Mac guy. Not much harm can come, unless I’m dumb enough to give user authorization.


3 posted on 07/03/2009 8:16:52 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Gomez

Never used McLafee. Removed it from all my computers the first time I booted them up.


4 posted on 07/03/2009 8:19:43 PM PDT by Dallas59 ("You know the one with the big ears? He might be yours, but he ain't my president.")
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To: Gomez

McAfee is just a big virus.


5 posted on 07/03/2009 8:20:28 PM PDT by Fido969 ("The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax." - Albert Einstein)
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To: RegulatorCountry

It happened to my computer this week. I re-installed McAffee, ok now.


6 posted on 07/03/2009 8:21:11 PM PDT by rose
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To: Dallas59

What do you use?


7 posted on 07/03/2009 8:22:01 PM PDT by rose
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To: Gomez
Big fun. Hope there's a "restore" option.
8 posted on 07/03/2009 8:24:35 PM PDT by TChad
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To: Dallas59

Yeah me neither. I used it for awhile but it was such a load to the system. AVG is it for me and while it has false positives none of them have ever crippled my system.


9 posted on 07/03/2009 8:25:21 PM PDT by aft_lizard (One animal actually eats its own brains to conserve energy, we call them liberals.)
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To: Gomez

I hope this doesn’t happen to me because that would really su(*!@!@#$%^&*()[NO CARRIER]


10 posted on 07/03/2009 8:25:36 PM PDT by MarineBrat (The New York Times is a Communist Kamikaze.)
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To: Dallas59

Ditto that. I don’t use any AV.


11 posted on 07/03/2009 8:26:28 PM PDT by Big Giant Head (Running my computer bare naked for over a year with no infections at all.)
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To: aft_lizard

+1


12 posted on 07/03/2009 8:31:02 PM PDT by Sylvester McMonkey McBean
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To: Fido969

Bit Defender 2009 is even worse. If I let my computer sit for a while, it would take a full 5-7 minutes to load Thunderbird and Firefox. I HATED that program. Talk about a memory and processor hog, it was the pits.


13 posted on 07/03/2009 8:31:42 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Socialism is the belief that most people are better off if everyone was equally poor and miserable.)
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To: Gomez

Yeah & the gov wants all of my personal information to put on their national database. Sounds like a good idea. I mean computers are so much smarter than people.


14 posted on 07/03/2009 8:32:12 PM PDT by Bhoy
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To: Gomez

AVG Free anti-virus did this same thing to my pc some months back. I had to delete the program and all files, and get a completely different anti-virus program to protect myself.


15 posted on 07/03/2009 8:33:02 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Gomez

Is this like Nanny MacPhee???

hehehe!


16 posted on 07/03/2009 8:35:00 PM PDT by TruthConquers (Delendae sunt publici scholae)
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To: Gomez

A spokesperson from McAfee had this to say: “Oooops”


17 posted on 07/03/2009 8:35:34 PM PDT by Mr_Moonlight
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To: hiredhand

BTTT.


18 posted on 07/03/2009 8:41:18 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: Gomez

I hate MacAfee. I had their service until they kept billing my credit card account multiple times without my authorization. I had to go through hell to get the charges reversed and get them to stop. That company and their customer support are BAD NEWS. Beware!


19 posted on 07/03/2009 8:41:23 PM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: Windflier

How long ago?
I use AVG Free and had a major malfunction about 6 months ago. We weren’t able to pinpoint what the cause was but I trashed the computer, everything was going bonkers on it....


20 posted on 07/03/2009 8:44:17 PM PDT by xrmusn
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