After the technical disaster of an anti-virus company releasing an update that shut down many of their customers’ computers, McAfee now has to cope with the public relations disaster:
After dealing with McAfee’s most recent fix that sabotaged Windows XP PC clients worldwide, users of the antivirus software headed over to Twitter to vent their rage, creating a public-relations and legal nightmare that will likely continue long after the last machine is patched.
“I hate McAfee,” more than one Tweeter wrote, summing up the frustration felt when a McAfee update identified a “normal Windows process” as malware and killed it, kicking off a death spiral for the affected machines.
Another Tweet: “McAfee DAT 5958, you’ve made…no wait, what’s the opposite of “made my day”?… you’ve DESTROYED MY DAY. hate you McAfee. HAAATEEEEE.”
“VirusScan,” another person Tweeted. “The cure is worse than the disease.”
I was fortunate, as fellow blogger William P. alerted me to the issue and I got home and turned off McAfee automatic updating before my desktop machine loaded the poison update.
Internal memo currently circulating at The Army Formerly Known as The PLA:
“The test worked.”
Comment by Lickmuffin — April 26, 2010 @ 10:47
I am a little cautious and only pull AV updates once a week, rather than daily. I like to have some time to assess the DAT changes before anything gets auto-committed across the whole home network. I only have one XP box left (my wife’s workstation) and I was hoping that maybe the McAfee thing would tank it, but it didn’t, so no upgrade this week.
Comment by Chris Taylor — April 27, 2010 @ 13:40
Is she aware that you harbour these barely concealed evil intentions towards her computer?
The McAfee reminder has popped up a few times so far this week. Eventually I’ll give in and risk updating it. But it’s certainly increased the chances that I’ll switch to a different AV vendor when this package is due for renewal.
Comment by Nicholas — April 27, 2010 @ 13:52
It’s not that I hate XP or my wife’s computer, it’s just that I’m more confident in Win7’s ability to resist net-vector infections. XP is the thermal exhaust port in the home network Death Star. Highly unlikely that anything could thread its way through the multi-layered defences and take the whole mess down, but all the same, I’d be happier if it weren’t even a factor.
Comment by Chris Taylor — April 27, 2010 @ 20:01
I nearly sprayed Tawny Port over my new white golf shirt over that.
Comment by Nicholas — April 27, 2010 @ 20:42