Macafee release DAT that stops internet connection and other issues

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Have just recieved word from my IT manager to check all machines as we run Macafee apparently the DAT released today can stop internet connections, hang machines and other issues. Macafee apparently recalled the DAT at 6:20pm UK time. If you are running XP SP3 check your machines isn't running the latest version.

 

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My wife's company got bit by this issue. Oops!

 

Got to go onsite tomorrow with one of our schools and sort this out.

 

Oh dear, this has happened before and will happen again.

Good old McAfee.

 

what I don't understand is why they do this. Don't they check things before releasing them?

 

Of course not, I was actually going to mention about the failure of staging this properly prior to release but didn't.

TBF it can happen, it's happened before with service packs (NT4 SP6 broke TCP/IP, was promptly replaced with SP6a for that very reason), its not new and will happen again some time.

 

Seems a bit dumb to me, but then again I wouldn't use Macafee on my home system although I am suprised this can happen with business systems I thought this sort of thing would destroy their credibility with IT bods everywhere.

 

Never let anti-McAfee bias get in the way of the truth eh Simon?

McAfee's documentation specifically references - in several places - the suggested deployment method for DATs - which includes checking new DATs into an evaluation branch before releasing to the 'live' environment. That is exactly what I do, exactly what I have done at every site where I've been responsible for EPO, and exactly why I'm sitting here smugly with a cold beer, whilst everyone who doesn't follow sensible, recommended practice is left scrambling around trying to fix the problem.

And if you want to talk about this happening with McAfee products in teh past, and likely to happen again in the future, I'd point you to the ISVW (Trend) install I ran for a while which, at one point, was releasing a pattern file about once every three weeks that would kill the server (and any clients updating from it) stone dead until I reverted. Or the Kaspersky install I had to put up with at one company because the MD was a friend of a Kaspersky engineer - which had a database and updating structure so bizarre that you needed to think in seven dimensions to roll a dat back when they released a moody update.

McAfee is no worse than any other AV vendor. The main difference is that when they get wind of a problem, they notify the whole world whilst they are fixing it - instead of fending off support calls from irate customers by lying to them 'it wasn't us guv - you must have a virus' - whilst quietly fixing it in the background and releasing an update/pattern file that 'miraculously' solves the problem...

 

IT bods everywhere who know how to run their systems don't worry about issues that are caused by people not knowing how to run their systems

 

lol, sounds true.

 

Actually Zeb this wasn't anti Mcafee, if you notice in my posts on the subject I never once said this was all Mcafees fault, infact I specifically stated that Microsoft had been guilty in the past, I also didn't say that Mcafee would be doing it again in the future. My post was more specifically aimed at those people who fail to stage properly, in this instance it was Mcafee (and all those who were caught out by releasing dat files without checking them out first).

 

To be fair, I quoted the wrong post. The one I meant to quote had a piss-take of McAfee specifically in it, and mentioned no other vendor, so the phrase "this has happened before and will happen again" can't possibly be construed in any other way than a dig at McAfee.

Understand I'm not having a pop at you here personally over this. I'm just a bit tired of people having a go at McAfee because they haven't bothered to take the time to get to know the products in question properly. I have far less problems with McAfee overall than any other AV vendor. Having been responsible for AV management in pretty much every place I've worked for the past ten years, I think that gives me a reasonable range of experience to call from.

 

I have to agree with Zeb on this one... there standard practices that we as tech should follow... I know even I dont always ready documentation, etc but when something that could effect the entire company is at hand... we need to be really careful. When I deploy stuff, anything new I always have a test group then once I am sure all is good, I deploy else where... Same thing with WSUS I don't apply updates right away when they come out... I am usually 3-4 weeks behind on updates unless its critical must have update.

 

Actually I don't think "Good old McAfee" is exactly a piss take, had I gone "oops they did it again" then that can be construed as a pisstake, as it happens it wasn't and that's why I expanded on my second post to include the fact that anyone and everyone can let something through if they are unlucky.

As far as Mcafee goes I actually like their products, it's well known that I don't like Sophos but as far as pretty much every other vendor out there goes I have no issues with them, again having worked with various large banks etc I can tell you that McAfee holds a pretty large share of the market when it comes to AV, with that in mind I have had to get to know EPO and how to stage various product updates (WSUS, AV etc).

 

I'm not really a McAfee fan. Then again, I haven't used their products in about six years. In the workplace, I've most often used Symantec and TrendMicro. When McAfee became seriously bloated, I switched my personal boxen from McAfee to Trend, though I'm about to re-evaluate that decision with Trend's recent pricing structure with regards to upgrades/renewals - when it costs more to renew than it does to find a new copy on sale, something's seriously wrong.

 

I haven't used McAfee since I was in school, maybe it was badly administered on my school network but it seemed to be as holey as a big holey thing full of holes whilst still being so bloated as to cripple the performance of the machines it was running on.

In the commercial world I've only ever worked with Sophos as this place has been using it for about as long as they've had PCs, we're just coming to the end of a ten year license. Its given me very little trouble and proved very easy to manage.

Chances are unless the cost is massive we'll just renew for a while longer, I could poor time and effort into finding the best solution but 2 things stop me 1) my boss, why spend time improving our av when we can spend it doing something far less important? 2) our budget, I've got my eyes set on improving something else first and we only really get the funds for one 'big' change a year.