McAfee Anti-Virus Causes Widespread File Damage

[BJ_M]

McAfee released an anti-virus update that contained an anomaly in the DAT file that caused many important files to be deleted from affected systems. At one company, tens of thousands of files were deleted from dozens of servers and around 2000 user machines. Affected applications included MS Office, and products from IBM (Rational), GreenHills, MS Office, Ansys, Adobe, Autocad, Hyperion, Win MPM, MS Shared, MapInfo, Macromedia, MySQL, CA, Cold Fusion, ATI, FTP Voyager, Visual Studio, PTC, ADS, FEMAP, STAT, Rational.Apparently the DAT file targeted mostly, if not exclusively, DLLs and EXE files." An anonymous reader added, "Already, the SANS Internet Storm Center received a number of notes from distressed sysadmins reporting thousands of deleted or quarantined files. McAfee in response released advice to restore the files. Users who configured McAfee to delete files are left with using backups (we all got good backups... or?) or System restore."

http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2802

[TBoneit]

Not surprise or a first with a McAfee update!

One of the reasons i stopped using it was you never if a update was going to trash something data or windows itself. Saw Panda Av trash windows after it updated itself too. may have been just that machine but it was a clean install of windows.

[redwudz]

I suppose that could happen with any antivirus program.

As long as they just went into quarantine, instead of being permanently deleted, it wouldn't be quite so bad. But it's going to cost McAfee a lot of money and loss of future sales to clean up the mess and get their reputation back.

It will probably have a lot of companies looking at their antivirus programs and wondering if a similar thing can happen.

[TBoneit]

True it could, but so far, Knock wood for luck, not to me with Norton.

Any antivirus program has the potential to cause big problems. It has to insinuate itself all throughthe operating system to catch things coming from files being opened, email, internet etc.

backups? What are they? Sad to say many people don't even think about backups until after their first bad data loss.

I myself do not back up computer in terms of a structurd backup program. OTOH I have nothing to cry about if a drive dies.

I can re-install the OS easily, as I do twice a year anyway. When I buy software online I burn a CD with the software and the e-mail with the activation key. I also print out that e-mail and file in a loose leaf folder that holds all my passwords and keys. I also keep the s/w on a drive in a sw folder and back that up to DVD regularly. Any video/sound I work on gets turned into a DVD or Audio CD and erased anyway.

Important emails get printed and filed and backed up on CD.

Any covers I may create get saved on the DVD with the video along with any text or html pages.

Beyond that there is nothing I feel a need to preserve. Here at work we do backup the server to two different other computers on the network. Since that server OS isn't really vulnerable to viruses it is probably secure. We also change the drive (Yup that small) every couple of years. Same software has been in use since before I came here in 1996.

[Tom Saurus]

I recently bought and installed McAfee on my computer. Now I am going to be worried that it may cause more harm than good. I better start a heavy duty backup program.

[Snakebyte1]

This is the reason why I always wait about a couple of days before installing any patch or updating anti-virus definitions - especially on the servers here at work. I'll let some other brave admin's try it out first and take the bullet!!

[ROF]

I read today the latest Norton Update blocks AOL users from logging on because it detects something in the log on procedure as a threat to safe computing.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6050786.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed

[ladyb1998]

i have been using McAfee since version 6 have came out and now i am up to v10. i have never had any problems with Mcafee. i never used Norton so i can't speak for how good it is. with Mcafee i have never had a virus. my friend had a virus once before and i used Mcafee and it cleaned his computer up.

[TBoneit]

ROF, Lets face it can you really consider that a false positive? For many users the internet itself is a threat to safe computing. Now to get serious have you noticed that AOl wants to take over. It wants to play your CDs for example. Look how much the new versions load when you start the computer.

But that is too funny, They get blocked from accessing the internet, they can not therefor download a new update that will fix the problem, they can not search the internet to see what went wrong.

Here's a interesting Microsoft page if you didn't see it before? It can be helpfull when doing repairs as it includes generic not activatable product keys for installs. The page is titled "Deploying Windows XP Using Windows Product Activation"

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/wpadepl.mspx

Cheers

[ROF]

I used Norton products for several years until it allowed infection of my system. I noticed an immediate system performance increase after uninstalling. I knew I would but prior to that point I always trusted Norton. I began using one of the free anti-virus programs until AOL provided it's subscribers with free McAfee and I've been using McAfee ever since. I must point out my McAfee is set to update automatically and perform full system scans once per day. I was uneffected with this recent trouble. I don't know why, but it simply did not effect me.

I have not noticed AOL trying to take over my system except internet and requests after install for multimedia options. If you are an AOL member you can quickly see why. AOL is trying to become the home entertainment hub. They offer free TV shows, free music videos, free XM satelite radio, free music, and much more. As to the controls it can have, I only have to uncheck those requests and it doesn't effect me. I do not want AOL to become my playback for audio CD option anymore than I want WMP to be DVD player. Both ask, I say No, they leave me alone after that.

Quite a few AOL subscribers do not use AOL as their service provider. I am one of them. If I was using Norton and this happened to me I'd still be able to access the internet. The only things it would prevent would be AIM chatting and AOL mail retrieval. None of that would be a laughing matter if AOL was your service provider and you trusted Norton to protect you. It would be interesting if these peoples only access to the internet was their home computer and Norton shut it down. How would they get updates or even better yet how would they know it was Norton that caused the problem to begin with?

[rhegedus]

Norton can also cause file damage.......

Yesterday, after sating that it had just finished configuring my mail folders, Norton IS very kindly corrupted my Inbox, Sent, Saves and Orders dbx files (the last two being where I kept all my password and purchase info e-mails) to the extent that not even the best dbx repair programs could recover my e-mails.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

From the link, it appears tham most AV programs can do this.

[ROF]

I wouldn't trust Norton to scan my enemies email.

[rhegedus]

I've been using NAV for 10 years or so and this is the first time I've lost data because of it - I suppose I should be more careful in backing up important stuff.

[MJA]

there are tons of free anti virus programs out there,and they are 100 time better than norton and mcafee.i guess heavy adveritsments from both companies is working

[MJA]

I read today the latest Norton Update blocks AOL users from logging on because it detects something in the log on procedure as a threat to safe computing.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6050786.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed

also AOL AIM itself is adware, with big annoying flashing ads.default AOL installer installs various products adware spyware junk,so I'm ganna agree with Norton on this one