McAfee software program bug could turn customers’ PCs into spam servers
Posted by Jared v.D. W 19 January, 2012
BOSTON (Reuters) – Anti-virus software package maker McAfee warned that a flaw in one particular of its goods could make consumers' PCs vulnerable to attacks in which hackers utilized their computers to distribute spam.
The organization, which is a unit of chipmaker Intel Corp, disclosed the flaw in a message to clients on its web site Wednesday.
McAfee spokesman Ian Bain said t least a single customer had fallen victim to such an attack, which leveraged a flaw in a service providing recognized as McAfee SaaS for Total Protection.
The web-based service protects consumers from viruses hidden in emails and web sites. Bain said the flaw was in a piece of software program that McAfee consumers install on their PCs to enable them to use the service.
While the flaw could allow hackers to send spam from machines of McAfee SaaS for Total Protection consumers, it does not grant them access to information on an affected Pc, Bain mentioned.
He stated that the organization's engineers were working to fix the bug and expected to have it fixed on Thursday.
In April 2010, a glitch included in a standard release of McAfee's anti-virus software mistakenly identified component of Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) popular Windows XP operating program as a virus, triggering private computer outages at numerous of its consumers, such as a lot more than 100 significant corporations.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle Editing by Matt Driskill)
