McAfee antivirus update reboots computers around world - 4/21/10

[RamboLiberal]

A bad software update from McAfee, the popular antivirus software provider, caused computers around the world to repeatedly reboot today.

McAfee has posted a fix to this problem on its McAfee KnowledgeBase website http://vil.nai.com/vil/5958_false.htm (For more information on the software update and repair, visit McAfee's website here.)

McAfee said the update posted around 8 a.m. (CST) this morning and caused computers running Windows XP with Microsoft's Service Pack 3 to incorrectly identify a harmless, legitimate Windows file as containing a virus, according to an April 21 Associated Press story.

CNet.com, a technology information website, said the snafu resulted in networking problems and forced users to repeatedly reboot.

"McAfee is aware that a number of customers have incurred a false-positive error due to incorrect malware alerts on Wednesday, April 21," a McAfee statement posted on CNet.com said. "The problem occurs with the 5958 virus definition file (DAT) that was released on April 21."

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/the-problem-solver/2010/04/mcafee-antivirus-update-reboots-computers-around-world.html

[RC]

1. Didn't McAfee do this a few months ago?

It seems to me this is not the first time this has happened.