McAfee to compensate bug affected Aussies
- 28 April, 2010 16:50
McAfee will offer free 12-month security subscriptions and tailored packages to Australian customers affected by its recent bungled update.
The signature update was pushed out last week that wrongly identified a critical Windows system file as a virus, wiping thousands of consumer and corporate machines around the world.
As part of its reparation efforts, McAfee will offer its “automated security health check” to affected users, and a “customer commitment package” of free service and support offerings tailored to specific customers.
It is as yet unclear what the automated security check services are, although Computerworld’s US sister publication identified two possible offerings as McAfee’s Vulnerability Assessment SaaS for medium- and large-sized companies, and its Anti-Virus Health Check Assessment for small businesses.
McAfee will extend its security suite subscriptions for two years for affected home and home office users, and will reimburse a “reasonable” cost of repairing computers, using a “local tech support specialist”.
It is unclear how many local users were affected, however IT managers contacted by Computerworld said they avoided damage by testing prior to network deployment.
IBRS security advisor James Turner said most organisations with mature change control processes would avoid the problem.
"But this also depends on their IT maturity, as well as resources able to test and verify," Turner said.
The offending update was the 5958 virus definition file that flagged the Windows' ‘svchost.exe’ generic host process. It was released about midnight, AEST, 21 April.
Computerworld is seeking further comment.