McAfee program goes berserk, reboots PCs
Hospitals, schools, company computers around the world affected by error
NEW YORK - Computers in companies, hospitals and schools around the world got stuck repeatedly rebooting themselves Wednesday after an antivirus program identified a normal Windows file as a virus.
McAfee confirmed that a software update it posted at 9 a.m. Eastern time caused its antivirus program for corporate customers to misidentify a harmless file. It has posted a replacement update for download.
McAfee could not say how many computers were affected, but judging by online postings, the number was at least in the thousands and possibly in the hundreds of thousands.
McAfee said it did not appear that consumer versions of its software caused similar problems. It is investigating how the error happened "and will take measures" to prevent it from recurring, the company said in a statement.
The computer problem forced about a third of the hospitals in Rhode Island to postpone elective surgeries and stop treating patients without traumas in emergency rooms, said Nancy Jean, a spokeswoman for the Lifespan system of hospitals. The system includes Rhode Island Hospital, the state's largest, and Newport Hospital. Jean said patients who required treatment for gunshot wounds, car accidents, blunt trauma and other potentially fatal injuries were still being admitted to the emergency rooms.
Deborah Montanaro of North Kingstown, R.I., told The Providence Journal her son was turned away by the hospital and not given the spinal radiation therapy he needed to treat his leukemia.
"It is impacting patient care," she told the newspaper. "They have no Plan B. I am very upset."
The hospital's computers came back online around 4:30 ET, Jean told the newspaper.
In Kentucky, state police were told to shut down the computers in their patrol cars as technicians tried to fix the problem. The National Science Foundation headquarters in Virginia also lost computer access.
Intel appeared to be among the victims, according to employee posts on Twitter.
"For PCs that have been affected and are in a state of reboot, Intel IT is still working on how to get the deleted files back on the operating system, which will allow PCs to boot normally again," spokesman Bill MacKenzie told The Oregonian.
"We do have instructions out that are working for some people and not for others. We are continuing to work the issue."
Peter Juvinall, systems administrator at Illinois State University, said that when the first computer started rebooting it quickly became evident that it was a major problem, affecting dozens of computers at the College of Business alone.
"I originally thought it was a virus," he said. When the tech support people concluded McAfee's update was to blame, they stopped further downloads of the faulty software update and started shuttling from computer to computer to get the machines working again.
In many offices, personal attention to each PC from a technician appeared to be the only way to fix the problem because the computers weren't receptive to remote software updates when stuck in the reboot cycle. That slowed the recovery.
It's not uncommon for antivirus programs to misidentify legitimate files as viruses. Last month, antivirus software from Bitdefender locked up PCs running several different versions of Windows.
However, the scale of this outage was unusual, said Mike Rothman, president of computer security firm Securosis.
"It looks to be a train wreck," Rothman said.
In Utah, at least 700 of Utah Valley University's 5,000 computers on campus were affected, but university spokesman Chris Taylor said all computers were back up and running by noon Wednesday, as IT officials "were right on top of it."
In Sarasota County, Fla., school district officials said about 800 computers experienced the problem, and power was pulled quickly on the PCs. Officials said they were able to get computer systems up in running again in a little more than half an hour.
Msnbc.com’s Bob Sullivan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36694120/
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Stolen goods on EBay
Early this week a California couple was sentenced to more than a year in prison for selling stolen toys on eBay. The couple might have never been caught had they not boasted about their exploits on the popular TV show "Dr. Phil" in 2008.
Today they're behind bars, and if eBay's new partnership with the National Retail Federation goes as planned, more retail criminals will be caught and punished in the near future.
Retail crime is a growing problem, reports the NRF. In a recent NRF survey, 73 percent of retailers polled said organized retail crime has increased in the past year. And 92 percent of those retailers said they had been victims of organized crime. The total cost of these schemes is an estimated $115 billion a year, according to reports.
In partnership with eBay, the group aims to decrease these numbers through regular meetings to discuss ways to prevent online crimes, identify criminals and collaborate on new technologies that will help reduce the number of crimes, and by working on new legislation to increase the number of resources allotted to fight organized retail crime.
"For years we have engaged online marketplaces, including eBay to partner with our retail members and take an aggressive stance against these illegal operations," notes Joe LaRocca, the NRF's senior asset protection adviser, on the organization's blog.
“NRF and eBay are putting criminals on notice that they will no longer be able to… abuse the online marketplace for profit”
"NRF has done a great job of shining a spotlight on the issue of organized retail crime, but retailers cannot fight this problem alone," says Paul Jones, eBay's global director of asset protection. "Through this partnership, NRF and eBay are putting criminals on notice that they will no longer be able to steal from retailers and abuse the online marketplace for profit."
The partnership will also allow for more information sharing among the two organizations to help law enforcement apprehend criminals.
"eBay has invested in a number of new resources and is making tremendous strides to assist retailers and law enforcement with tracking illegal behavior," LaRocca continues. "The partnership between NRF and eBay will create standards and best practices to stop criminals from fencing their stolen goods."
Relations between eBay and NRF have not always been harmonious. Recently, the two organizations were at odds over legislation aimed at thwarting online fencing activity—bills eBay asserted were more anti-competitive than anti-crime.
Source Auctiva
Today they're behind bars, and if eBay's new partnership with the National Retail Federation goes as planned, more retail criminals will be caught and punished in the near future.
Retail crime is a growing problem, reports the NRF. In a recent NRF survey, 73 percent of retailers polled said organized retail crime has increased in the past year. And 92 percent of those retailers said they had been victims of organized crime. The total cost of these schemes is an estimated $115 billion a year, according to reports.
In partnership with eBay, the group aims to decrease these numbers through regular meetings to discuss ways to prevent online crimes, identify criminals and collaborate on new technologies that will help reduce the number of crimes, and by working on new legislation to increase the number of resources allotted to fight organized retail crime.
"For years we have engaged online marketplaces, including eBay to partner with our retail members and take an aggressive stance against these illegal operations," notes Joe LaRocca, the NRF's senior asset protection adviser, on the organization's blog.
“NRF and eBay are putting criminals on notice that they will no longer be able to… abuse the online marketplace for profit”
"NRF has done a great job of shining a spotlight on the issue of organized retail crime, but retailers cannot fight this problem alone," says Paul Jones, eBay's global director of asset protection. "Through this partnership, NRF and eBay are putting criminals on notice that they will no longer be able to steal from retailers and abuse the online marketplace for profit."
The partnership will also allow for more information sharing among the two organizations to help law enforcement apprehend criminals.
"eBay has invested in a number of new resources and is making tremendous strides to assist retailers and law enforcement with tracking illegal behavior," LaRocca continues. "The partnership between NRF and eBay will create standards and best practices to stop criminals from fencing their stolen goods."
Relations between eBay and NRF have not always been harmonious. Recently, the two organizations were at odds over legislation aimed at thwarting online fencing activity—bills eBay asserted were more anti-competitive than anti-crime.
Source Auctiva
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