Anti-Virus Program Causes PC Reboot Mayhem

(AP)  Computers in companies, hospitals and schools around the world got stuck repeatedly rebooting themselves Wednesday after an antivirus program identified a normal Windows file as a virus.

McAfee Inc. confirmed that a software update it posted at 9 a.m. Eastern time caused its antivirus program for corporate customers to misidentify a harmless file. It has posted a replacement update for download.

"We are not aware of significant impact on consumers and believe we have effectively limited such occurrence," the company said in a statement.

Online posters begged to differ, saying thousands of computers running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 were rendered useless.

About a third of the hospitals in Rhode Island were forced to stop treating patients without traumas in emergency rooms. The hospitals also postponed some elective surgeries, said Nancy Jean, a spokeswoman for the Lifespan system of hospitals. The system includes Rhode Island Hospital, the state's largest, and Newport Hospital, the only hospital on Aquidneck Island.

Jean said patients who required emergency care 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 Arlington, Va., also lost computer access.

Peter Juvinall, systems administrator at Illinois State University in Normal, 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.

"I originally thought it was a virus," he said. When the tech support people concluded McAfee's update was to blame, they stopped further downloads of the faulty software update and started shuttling from computer to computer to get them working again.

Such personal attention to each PC from a technician appeared to be the only way to fix the problem because the computers weren't receptive to remote software updates when stuck in the reboot cycle. That slowed the recovery.

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

[lipcog]

You should consider changing your antivirus software if it causes problems. If you want to do that , I recommend you to read these reviews of the best ten security programs nowadays and you might want to pick one from there to use it: http://www.best-antivirus.co/

[Arbuckle_Doc_10]

So, what was the name of that Windows file???

[insignia96]

This is why I want to kill myself.

There's a thing called safe mode. Safe mode will not load McAfee, it will only load the necessary things, then you can uninstall it. Any technician will know this, so I personally blame all the technicians who did not know this for the problem and the fact that the companies were dumb enough to hire the people that went to a computer science class to make video games, slacked off, and got rejected from their dream job also leads me to believe in PEBKAC, Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair, whether the problem be a stupid technician or a stupid user, this would be a very simple fix.

[kimatian]

Feel free to end it, because if it identified a core windows file as a virus, it would have moved it to quarantine, and Safe mode can't be reached if core files are affected.

If you're certified, I hope someone revokes it, and soon.

[cool_cat7]

My Avast! anti virus for me is one of the best, it does the job in weeding out viruses, worms, and Trojan malwares. It even updates itself automatically.

[cbsblogger]

When you have a Windows based PC, even after 20 years, you will have spent major time not doing what you use the PC for, but researching and trouble shooting and keeping it running. It's not just an appliance, the act of keeping it going becomes a career in itself.

Imagine if you had a TV that required major time just to keep away blank screens, blue screens, viruses and driver failures. Most people would never waste their time on it. Why do we waste our time on this Microsoft OS?

From what I hear Apple Mac users actually use their computers as appliances and not as exercises in frustration just to keep them running properly.

[tsigili]

Precisely why I HATE updates! They always put them out, with inadequate testing.

[bruce789]

In a mac, when a program acts up, all you do is force-quit that program from the menu, no drama.

[rwsmith29456]

Well, a black eye for Mcaffee. My main problem with Norton is that It's like dragging an anchor. Slowdown city. It pops up a lot of windows and warnings but let some malware (My Pages) install itself with no promting from me and got into everything as was h*ll to remove. I've got it really bad on my HP laptop. The HP program itself constantly produces pop ups to tell about the state of something. Between what pops up in Norton and Windows. I'm forever closing popup screens. The two run better together than they did in Vista days (not hard do do)

[rf35]

I use McAfee at home and am forced to use Norton at work. I have had my work computer infected on a few occasions because Norton can only detect known malware. My home system has not had a damaging infection (and I do visit "risky" sites from home). I like McAfee because it can detect not only know viruses, worms, and Trojans, but also POTENTIAL malware. I have had a few files quarantined by this feature. I was then able to wait for future definition updates that included the infection in question and clean or delete the affected file. I think it had one false alarm in all the years I've used McAfee. It also handles spyware and adware effectively. I was able to kick a couple of specialized spy/adware programs to the curb once this update was made. Bottom line: any software has the potential to cause problems on a system. I'm sure people who have had bad experiences with McAfee had a piece of software or had their system configured in such a way that it caused problems. It?s kind of like medications: two perfectly safe and effective drugs can have a deadly interaction if mixed or a particular individual may have a bad reaction to a medication that tens of thousands of other do not experience. My computer is quick and happy with McAfee...I will continue to use it until that changes.

Note on cost: since people take work home sometimes, the DoD licenses us to use our choice of Norton or McAfee on our home PC's at greatly reduced cost.

[soundloud]

I wonder why they still use McAfee in the first place, and why the hell they didn't check the software before they released it. Also this shows how much we depend on the computers, and what about our defence systems...