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Botched Security Update Cripples Thousands of Computers

Posted by samzenpus on from the houston-we-have-a-problem dept.

girlmad writes "Thousands of PCs have been crippled by a faulty update from security vendor Malwarebytes that marked legitimate system files as malware code. The update definition meant Malwarebytes' software treated essential Windows.dll and .exe files as malware, stopping them running and thus knocking IT systems and PCs offline, leaving lots of unhappy users and one firm with 80% of its servers offline."

5 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Microsoft Security Essentials... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...is all I use these days.

    Of course since Windows is "out of favor" here, one does not necessarily mention that Microsoft's "Security Essentials" is easily as good as most commercial Windows anti-malware packages, and much more "light weight". And free. And yes, everyone knows that Microsoft purchased the original technology (so what?) ...

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    1. Re:Microsoft Security Essentials... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      NO, it hasn't been getting bad reviews, it has had some negative press based on some dodgy tests that try to use essentials for something it isn't really meant for. They throw zero day malware to test its heuristics, which are not wonderful. however in known malware (the stuff 99.9% of people need protection against) it is exceptionally good.

    2. Re:Microsoft Security Essentials... by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Only by those who don't pay attention to current reviews. Like many recent Microsoft products, MSE started off well, but has been in steady decline since its release.

      Face it, they're all shite... the viruses change every single day and no anti-virus of them will protect you from the latest ones. Not one. Virus infection is 100% due to the warm squishy thing between the keyboard and chair, not the flavor of antivirus installed on the machine.

      OTOH, MSE doesn't constantly annoy, slow your PC to a crawl or constantly ask for credit card details just to keep on running.

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    3. Re:Microsoft Security Essentials... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But if it doesn't slow the computer down to an unusable crawl, how will anyone ever feel safe?!

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  2. Re:scoring 71% percent vs. the industry average 92 by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Basically "stop doing stupid things with your computer".

    Why a firm needed Malware Bytes on it's servers in the first place is the real question here.