Trend Micro Apologizes for Update Snafu

Customers of antivirus firm Trend Micro are being notified of an erroneous update sent out by the company on Friday afternoon. Customers who installed the update during that time and met certain software criteria experienced high CPU usage causing systems to either become unusable or crash.

"The update was released to combat new threats called 'Bots'", Michael Sweeney, public relations director at Trend Micro, told BetaNews. Bots are a new type of threat where infected machines become beacons for spam e-mails and worms by sending out infected e-mails unbeknownst to the user.

According to Trend Micro, the problem affected only Windows XP PCs running Service Pack 2. The issue was traced to a signature file update sent out by the company. However, even a promise of support to correct the problem did not stem the anger of some users.

"This...update took down virtually all 1,500 of our Windows XP SP2 PCs and required many hours of work to resolve," one user reported to ZDNet UK. "How in the world could Trend release a signature file that disables all Windows XP SP2 machines?"

Trend Micro quickly worked to quell rumors that the problems were caused by a virus within the update to its Scan Engine. Sweeney emphasized that while only a certain subset of customers were affected, the company "apologizes for the problems we caused" and would work to get all their users running again.

Sweeney also said that the company will expand its support hours to accommodate the additional load that the problem has generated. Support "is the clear objective," he said.

Users wishing to get more information can visit the Trend Micro Web site for more details.