McAfee antivirus update falsely reboots computers around world

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

at the beginning of boot up, that would then allow you to continue booting in "Safe Mode." I'm just guessing though. I'm no PC guru by any means.

...then they deserve whatever it does to their computer.

we support that POS here at work. i use Kaspersky myself.

Does the evil of McAfee know no boundaries???!!

must have been fun for the IT guy - checking to see if this was legit, then undoing it on the problem PCs.

anything since turning it on at 3 pm.

Get AVG. It's free and better.

The computer problem forced about a third of the hospitals in Rhode Island to postpone elective surgeries and stop treating patients without traumas in emergency rooms, said Nancy Jean, a spokeswoman for the Lifespan system of hospitals. The system includes Rhode Island Hospital, the state's largest, and Newport Hospital. Jean said patients who required treatment for gunshot wounds, car accidents, blunt trauma and other potentially fatal injuries were still being admitted to the emergency rooms.

In Kentucky, state police were told to shut down the computers in their patrol cars as technicians tried to fix the problem. The National Science Foundation headquarters in Virginia also lost computer access.

Intel Corp. appeared to be among the victims, according to employee posts on Twitter. Intel did not immediately return calls for comment.

Peter Juvinall, systems administrator at Illinois State University, said that when the first computer started rebooting it quickly became evident that it was a major problem, affecting dozens of computers at the College of Business alone.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36694120/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Work stopped and even classes were canceled.