How's Your Virus?
And why do I refuse to run McAfee and Norton? They’re a pain in the processor.
Now, via The Register, I feel better than ever about my decision:
IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attacked their core system files. In some cases, this caused the machines to display the dreaded blue screen of death.
Details are still coming in, but forums here and here show that it’s affecting McAfee customers in Germany, Italy, and elsewhere. A UK-based Reg reader, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized by his employer to speak to the press, said the glitch simultaneously leveled half of a customer’s 140 machines after they updated to the latest virus signature file.
//“Literally half of the machines were down with this McAfee anti-virus message IDing valid programs as having this trojan,” the IT consultant said. “Literally half the office switched off their PCs and were just twiddling their thumbs.”
I remember our IT folks running this idiotic program at 12 noon on Tuesdays. Slowed me down to a crawl every time. Way to go, helpdesk.
Personally, I run a bunch of free stuff on my PCs, and the Macs, well, why bother?
