CA Antivirus Misidentifies Windows Files as Malware

A great commotion occurred on July 8, 2009 when an antivirus program of Computer Associates, a software developing company, wrongly interpreted basic system files of Windows as malware, as reported by Cnet on July 9, 2009.

News reports state that on 8th of July 2009, CA's application identified a Windows file namely Win32/AMalum.ZZQIA as malware and began asking its consumers to upgrade Signature 6606 in order to deal with the problem.

Further, ever-since the false identification and subsequent file quarantine happened, users saw a pop-up window alerting that changes were made to system files and the result could be system instability, according to news reports.

The issue affected Windows XP SP3 only; however, people using other Windows editions also complained of facing the same problem. Messages posted on CA's Forum indicated that a lot of users were getting the false positives and experiencing their computers' crash down.

Nevertheless, CA has formally apologized, admitting the fault of their software and the ensuing inconveniences. The company also stated that its experts were on the job of resolving the problem emanating from the errant file. However, the mishap has caused misery to several frustrated customers who expressed their annoyance through comments posted on CA's forum.

One such comment said that the recent nonsense relating to a false malware detection, which resulted in harm to the Windows OS, was the last problem the comment writer experienced. According to him, he had encountered several hazards with CA anti-virus crashes while downloading e-mails using Thunderbirds, as reported by Cnet on July 9, 2009.

The consumer further wrote that it appeared CA had accomplished big things but forgotten that service to the customer was a significant part of conducting trade.

In a similar incident, during the 1st week of July 2009, consumers of McAfee, the security company, while using previous editions of the VirusScan software too received false positive alerts following a file download, which tagged genuine applications as malware.

Thus, the two incidents show how applications that are developed to safeguard computer users against malware could actually transpire into dangerous stuffs.

Related article: CA Canada Found Alarming Facts About Corporate Data Loss

» SPAMfighter News - 7/31/2009