Symantec Updates Cause Chaos in China

Hello Kitty writes "According to Computerworld, a signature update to Symantec's anti-virus software has knocked out thousands of Chinese PCs. Apparently the latest update for the AV component of the various Norton packages mistook two system files in the Chinese edition of Windows XP SP2 for the 'Backdoor.Haxdoor' trojan. Piracy issues may complicate recovery, since once the updates are installed Symantec says the only hope for reviving an affected system is to re-copy the affected DLLs from the Windows restore disks. Everyone has their official restore disks handy, right?"

Comments

not a mistake?

[navtal]

China is said to have a great deal of piracy? Could they actually have been pirated copies with malicious code?

Re:no sympathy

[l0rd.47hl0n]

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving country. Happy pirating ... NOT!

Re:no sympathy

[ewhenn]

I have no sympathy for software pirates. As if they have a right to complain that their pirated materials *gasp* stopped working. I only sympathize with the legit. customers.

I understand many chinese are poor and all... but that gives them no more right to pirate Windows than I would have to go and steal a BMW just because I can't afford one.

Re:Radical change imminent

[Anonymous Coward]

Most likely what will happen is that an edict will come from the highest levels to use Linux, and within months all state information will say that Linux has been fully adopted. However, it will most likely also be the case that the low level managers have kept their free pirated versions of Windows and simply lied to their superiors about Linux to tell them what they expect to hear.

This is also a common cause of famine in China: the central planners tell each region how much rice they will grow in a season, and the beauraucrats tell them that's how much rice was grown. When that fails to be the case, people starve because nobody ever admits to lying, so nobody knows that the surplus regions have a surplus and the deficit regions have a deficit.

dom

Re:Pre-pwned windows

[HomelessInLaJolla]

Santa Claus paid off Microsoft to put a back door in Wrong again, dumbass. No wonder you post AC.

The code base for an OS the size of Windows (and any Linux based OS as well) is bound to have security flaws. The great advantage of proprietary software development as that those security flaws are only known to the people in-house...and their friends...and the people they chat with on IRC...and the people they talk with at conventions...

You don't know a thing about social networking yet you somehow managed to influence someone with mod points.

Go AC go!