News McAfee update kills Windows

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2010/04/22/mcafee-update-kills-windows/1

 

Maybe they need to input a list of files that the scanner is not to touch.

To be honest though this shouldn't have been much of an issue, as virus scanners usually give you the option of not having it perform any action on a potential virus until you give the say so. If you haven't selected that option, then more fool you. Mine always flags up cracks but it wont touch them unless I say otherwise.

 

Simple solution.
I don't use firewalls nor anti-virus's.

Never had a problem.

 

a mac user by any chance??

 

Our techs had quite a bit of fun with this this morning... add Restrictions on the machines that make it virtually impossible to boot into safe mode, as well as encrypted hard drives, and you're set for a bit of fun.

 

college didnt roll out the update (damn) and its always horrible to try get past these systems when your at work/college as the restrictions stop everything

 

Me neither......

Just out of curiosity i installed AVG the other week and did a full scan, 700Gb's worth and came up totally clear, and that's after 'going commando' for the last 14mths of daily use...

I promptly uninstalled AVG....

The best anti virus you can get is common sense......and its free.

 

A better approach: Apply practices from Unix/Linux world.

(1) Buy the version of Windows with "Software Restriction Policy". (Usually named "Professional" or "Business" editions). Set it to "Disallow". This will only allow executables to run in "Program Files" and "Windows" directories. You can add more rules to suit your needs.

(2) Only use Administrator when installing/updating/fixing issues. (Password this account.)

(3) Always use Limited/Standard User for day-to-day use. (Password this account as well)...Combining with (1) will cause a Catch-22 for malware. => Where I can run; I cannot save. Where I can save; I cannot run.

(4) Always scrutinize every application/executable BEFORE you install. (Buy legit commercial, check user reviews of freeware, only get software from developer's website, etc.)

(5) Always stay up-to-date. Including third-party software like Java, Flash, Adobe Reader, etc.

(6) Familiarise yourself with the various social engineering tricks.
(A malware's most vulnerable point is getting the user to execute code. If that isn't allowed to happen; infection cannot occur!)

In the last 2 years of applying this approach; No infections. No malware. No BS applications running in the background...The only thing I worry about is hardware failure. (This is typically overcome by selecting quality parts.)

 

Do they never even do any QA before releasing an update? Thought this one would have been fairly obvious to catch.

 

Heard about this this morning as we use McAfee at work - thankfully they stopped the updates before they got across the whole network...

Even so, I thought the point of AV software was to keep your system running

 

Every AV solution in the last 5 years have caused "friendly fire" incidents such as this. This is why I don't trust AV solutions.

They are a danger to the computer user; and malware writers can easily bypass them by simply re-packaging existing malware...Re-craft existing malware to exploit new holes. (Saves you time...And adds more work for AV companies).

The AV approach to security is the reason why we still have crap floating on the web.

When more people apply what I've suggest; Windows infection numbers will fall.

(Granted, it'll put a number of people out of work; but that's just tough titties! Serves them right for being part of a dodgy industry!)

 

I would say not being able to boot your system is fairly severe. Surely you should be able to seek compensation from McAffee over this?

 

Hustler you do realise AVG wouldn't find anything even IF your computer is riddled with viruses? It's a piece of crap..

Microsoft Security Essentials is worth a go as its free, Malware Bytes Anti-Malware is also good..

 

We just went from McAfee to MS SE here at work and I wish we hadn't. We had 3 infections in 5 months, switched to SE and since then 12 infections in 1 month.

Thank you very much, MS. As much as I hate McAfee for being the resource killer it is, at least it found the malicious software!

 

The University of Sheffield got hit hard by this, pretty much all of the uni PC's are on XP SP3 and were shut down. I think they're still working on getting a lot of the staff computers running again.

Surely this all could've been avoided if people didn't download the update as soon as it was released? A 6 hour wait probably could've saved a lot of people a lot of trouble.

 

Seen numerous PC's of friends using AVG free and paid, Avast, Avira, all riddled with malware and viruses and all aformentioned programs did (as you say) F all. I am not sure if the people in question willfully let programmes like 'Anti Virus XP' take over their pc by clicking the boxes it pops up, but then these AV progs should block it.

As we know, best AV prog is called being Savvy.

 

True, although it increases workload for IT departments - especially difficult for companies without the resources to dedicate to a lab to test updates before rolling out to the live environment.

 

yeah...yeah...yeah.....heard it all before, fact is no matter what anti virus product i could have used, someone like you would always pop up to say its 'a piece of crap'........use this or use that...

 

Common sense keeps you pretty safe and ClamWin (windows port of ClamAV for Linux) helps out when common sense fails.

McAfee & Norton are as bad as or worse than the majority of viruses and have been for almost 20 years now.

 

You know MS SE is explicitly designed to work with a home user? In fact the liscence agreement forbids you from using it for work.

In other words, you really don't have a leg to stand on complaining.