McAfee offers compensation for losses from signature debacle

McAfee has said that it will offer compensation to home and home office users for losses arising as a result of last week's flawed signature update. The update (DAT 5958) caused the system file svchost.exe to be detected as the virus W32/Wecorl.a under Windows XP SP3 and quarantined. This resulted in affected systems entering an endless reboot loop.

McAfee has published tools and instructions for fixing the problem, but these may be too complicated for some users, added to which a second, still functioning PC is required in order to access and apply them. McAfee says it will cover costs such as fees paid to local computer specialists to get customers' computers back to normal.

The company will publish details of how to make a claim shortly. The anti-virus software vendor will also offer a free two year extension to licenses for its anti-virus software. This option should appear in customers' McAfee account profiles within the next 30 days.

McAfee has yet to comment on possible claims from businesses, where administrators have had to restore workers' PCs through, in some cases, several days of work.

See also:

• McAfee signature update takes down Windows systems, a report from The H.

(crve)