Latest Antivirus Error: McAfee Blocks A Bunch Of Popular Sites As Risky

from the sorry-about-that dept

Thu, Jan 3rd 2008 6:35pm — Mike Masnick

A little over a week after Kaspersky's anti-virus software declared Windows Explorer was a virus, it appears that McAfee has had its own mistake, as an anti-virus update from the company started warning people to stay away from a bunch of popular sites, including ESPN, Friendster and Ars Technica. McAfee later admitted that it was a mistake on its end, but it seems that we're seeing these kinds of false positives on a fairly frequent basis these days. It's yet another sign that things need to change in how security software works -- but instead of real advances, it still seems like firms are bogged down with things like pointless patent battles.

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Filed Under: security, viruses, websites
Companies: mcafee

10 Comments

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zcat, 3 Jan 2008 @ 6:52pm

old adage..
It's hard to drain the swamp when you're up to your neck in alligators..

Time to leave the swamp? Your linux is ready...
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inc, 3 Jan 2008 @ 10:44pm

Re: old adage..
Ubuntu baby
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Krubuntu, 3 Jan 2008 @ 10:57pm

Re: Re: old adage..
Absolutely. I got an HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop in August that came with Vista Business preinstalled and it drove me nuts. Tried Ubuntu 7.10 out by dual-booting and it took me a week to decide that all of my boxes from here on out will be Ubuntu or at least some form of Linux. I love it and did install Avast for antivirus "just in case" and I'm looking forward to years with out problems. I may not be able to play as many games but I'm sure my wife has no problem with that.
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 4 Jan 2008 @ 1:10am

No More Errors!
We mustn't let up the War On Error! Otherwise the errorists will win!
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 4 Jan 2008 @ 5:04am

Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer is not a virus?
I don't think I can buy into that one.
Too far fetched.
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known coward, 4 Jan 2008 @ 5:42am

was there anything . . .
In the sites that was tripping the anti-virus software, or was it just a bug in the virus defintion itself?
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franl, 4 Jan 2008 @ 10:16am

ESET's NOD32 a/v is small, fast, and very good
I use ESET's NOD32 (http://eset.com) antivirus tool on Windows, and it's small, fast, and has never missed a virus. In fact, NOD32's claim to fame is that it has never missed an in-the-wild virus. Not surprizingly, they push out a virus database to their client sometimes two or three times a day.
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a.v.koshy, 7 Jun 2009 @ 2:56pm

mcafee is dumb
my mcafee is blocking my access to gmail -help
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Mike, 16 Nov 2009 @ 6:37am

My favorite incidence of antivirus software blocking programs it should not be blocking was when my antivirus product X woul dnot let me install antivirus product Y. Then, my spyware program picked up multiple hits from antivirus X and Y. Why there is still no single product that does everything and actually does it well, continues to confound me on pretty much a daily basis.
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Wow, 2 Apr 2013 @ 1:47pm

argghhh
i've often found that certain anti-virus programs tend to block each other from running/installing they tend to squabble with each other, why is this?
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