Trend Micro Reviewing Update Snafu

Security firm says it is reviewing the process after releasing a faulty update.

By Tim Gray | Apr 29, 2005
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Trend Micro continues to review its development processes nearly a week after accidentally releasing a faulty antivirus update that caused thousands of customers' systems to bog down or lock up completely last weekend.

The difficulties for the Tokyo-based security firm began last Friday when the company released a fault in an update file that caused computers running Windows XP (SP2), with either Trend Micro's OfficeScan or VirusBuster software, to seize. The fault ate up 100 percent of the processor's cycles, according to the company.

"This trouble was caused by insufficient work in compatibility testing of the product with the operating system before it was released," Trend Micro said in a statement.

Trend Micro CEO Eva Chen said she expected the error to impact second-quarter revenues and results, according to a published report.

"There will be some impact, mainly in Japan," she reportedly told Reuters in Tokyo.

Although the security firm said it won't reimburse organizations for any loss of business, it will offer compensation to its 3.5 million customers in Japan who purchased VirusBuster. The firm will provide those customers with an additional month of support for free, the report said.

According to several estimates, the company has lost $3 million as a result of the snafu.

Michael Sweeny, a Trend Micro spokesman, could not estimate how many customers worldwide were affected but said the company has been reaching out to customers and channel partners about the problem, and had extended its support hours to assist them.

"In order to provide support and help, we reached out to our premium customers globally on Friday night and followed quickly with solutions on our solution bank," Sweeny said.

The company said customers who installed the update on Friday and met existing software criteria experienced high CPU usage causing their systems to become unusable or crash.

"Due to an isolated anomaly in the engineering, development and pattern release process, the UltraProtect decompression may, in certain circumstances, cause some systems to experience high CPU power consumption," Trend Micro said in a statement.

And the street has taken notice of the company's difficulties as stocks have tumbled $2.50 a share since Friday.

Article courtesy of internetnews.com

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