Symantec BSOD attack on China
p2pnet.net news:- Millions of Chinese computer users have been hit by the dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen of Death).
Symantec’s Norton Antivirus package disabled “millions” of PCs in China, says China state news agency Xinhua, declaring the crashes a, “heavy blow to people’s daily work and ongoing business”
News of the Symantec-generated BSOD shutdowns came on Friday, says the story going on, “The common symptom is that the computer may suddenly encounter a blue screen and then be prompted with an error message. The same problem remains even after a reboot of the system.
Symantec confirmed that the incident, “resulted from inappropriate handling of upgrading AntiVirus software,” says Xinhua, going on that according to a company spokesman, “the company was now working hard on a possible solution”.
The story continues:
The latest virus Norton database was upgraded on May 17. According to some PC experts, this software, after the upgrade, would regard two essential system files (netapi32.dll?lsasrv.dll) as viruses by mistake and clear them away from computers installed with Windows XP. That causes the computer to be locked up even after a reboot. Experts also confirmed that those using the simplified Chinese version of Windows XP and Norton AntiVirus will also be affected.
Currently, China has an estimated number of several millions of users who have installed their computers with Windows XP and Norton AntiVirus, a popular computer security software package.
Also See:
Xinhua – Computers accidentally “attacked” by Norton AntiVirus, May 20, 2007
f your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 21st, 2007 at 10:42 am
“Symantec’s Norton Antivirus package disabled “millions”…”
Symantec released the following official public statement:
“Oops, our bad.”
This only affects China?
May 21st, 2007 at 10:55 am
CHina is very wise in being cautious about using U.S. produced software. We shouyld be just as cautious about using Chinese produced computers. The so called Free Trade agreements do nothing other than enslave people and undermine nations’ sovereignty.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:09 am
Hand to God, I swear the topic read, “Symantec SOB…” initially.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Is it possible that Symantec is punishing all the pirate users of their product? Its common knowledge that software is rarely purchased by the masses if it can be copied and used for free !!
Just a thought!!
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:59 am
My Norton software has done this very same thing to my computer. I have gone through two discs thinking that the first might of been bad. Received new one yesterday and again the same thing happened. What do I do?