BURLINGAME, CALIF. – It was a tiny mistake with epic consequences, and now the company responsible says it wants to make amends.
Last week McAfee released a new version of its security virus software that, mistakenly, included in its list of PC-eating viruses a program that was, in fact, a standard part of the Windows operating system, CNET News.Com reported. Machines running the new software thought they were infected, and thus wouldn’t start properly. With businesses everywhere dependent on McAfee, the result was a disaster. Some hospitals turned away patients, jails canceled visitation sessions, and in Kentucky a police department saw its communications system go down.
McAfee apologized and released a patch, and the machines were slowly nursed back to health. On Monday the company said it would reimburse home and home-office users for any “reasonable” expenses involved in getting their machines up and running. Details were to be released later in the week on the company’s website, anti-virus software permitting.
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