Symantec Software Update Rendered Many PCs Useless
A software update to Symantec's Endpoint Protection software has pushed many Windows XP machines into blue screen limbo.
Reuters reports that an update to Symantec's anti-virus software caused an undisclosed number of Windows PCs to crash, rendering them useless. The news arrives by way of customer complaints expressing their rage in a support forum on Symantec's website. The company has since acknowledged the problem and issued a fix.
A deeper investigation into the report reveals that a signature update to Symantec's Endpoint Protection software, a security package mainly used in the corporate environment, caused Windows XP computers to crash. More specifically, affected customers saw blue screens after applying Proactive Threat Protection definition version July 11, 2012 rev 11.
"This problem appears to occur only on Windows XP machines running SEP 12.1," Symantec reports. "Symantec has reproduced the problem and is now trying to identify the root cause. We have posted updated signatures which resolve the issue to the public LiveUpdate production servers."
To work around the blue screen issue, customers are urged to follow a list of steps on the impacted machine, located here.
According to the customers on Symantec's forums, it took the company "hours" to identify and fix the issue. They feel that Symantec should be responsible for fixing their blue-screened computers. "Phoning Symantec support this morning was the start of the hell we went through," one customer said. "The support is a joke, the quality control is a joke, and the software is not much better."
A Symantec spokeswoman told Reuters that the issue only affected "a subset" of customers, and would not confirm how many computers crashed due to the tainted update. However Ron van den Broek, a technology manager with Dutch company PSO Beheer BV, said the bug caused around 150 company computers to fail.
"It did have quite an impact on our business," he said. "My first impression is Symantec is downplaying the effects of this issue."
Another company, a Maryland-based insurance firm, told Reuters that it had to shut down the anti-virus software installed on all of its 150 computers to prevent the update, leaving the company without protection.
What's the story here? Now might be a good time to ditch the decrepit operating system if the funds are available.
Seems like a pretty accurate description of Symantec to me.
Wrong conclusion. Ditch Symantec !!!
More proof that the "i" crowd are "i"diots.
Seems like a pretty accurate description of Symantec to me.
That, or use a FOSS OS which costs, oh, $0, and, yeah, no antivirus needed either.
Actually I believe those OSes mass used in a company will raise TCO. Reason being that those OSes usually don't come with built in software maker support like MS has which means IT will have to learn how to fix every little problem themselves instead of having specialists a call away to help fix it fast. That is one problem with free, since it is free there is no one but yourself and maybe scrounging through forums to fix problems. That is one of the reasons a lot of companies stay with MS, it is cheaper overall to use Windows.
When Symantec started spending more development time figuring out who to make PC's go haywire users life miserable the moment when their subscription expired, Symatntec stopped being a company whose products I support.
Also the fact that companies often have software that is "windows only", so moving to other platforms might not be possible.
Wrong conclusion. Ditch Symantec !!!
More proof that the "i" crowd are "i"diots.
It's not useless, you can still boot it in safemode.
Alright, and what's the best 3D modeling, design, and CAD software available on Ubuntu? What's the best video game development software, infrastructure management tools, and medical record keeping software available?
Face it, the police don't NEED more than Ubuntu to do what they do. Other people do.
"The root cause of the issue was an incompatibility ... between some third party software that implements a file system driver using kernel stack based file objects."
Well, I for one have several PC's where upgrading isn't an option. Simply because they have custom software on them that would be broken under 7, and the cost to rewrite it all would total in the millions. We don't all just play games with our PC's. When you get into control systems, robotics, CAD etc., you'll learn it takes years for developers to get the support they need from the component makers to risk switching operating systems. We bought a new 12 million dollar welder last year with XP. The manufacturer started the 7 switch over on their systems, but thinks they will be about 2 more years before they and the entire supply chain will be ready to complete the transition. Stability is job ONE in manufacturing. BTW, we just got our last NT system upgraded to XP only a year ago. That system only had intranet access anyway.