Missed That Bullet

Yesterday I gather was the second day of a disaster for those with XP SP2 and McAfee. I was on the road when this disaster hit with my Windows 7 machine and no connectivity.

In a ZD Net blog the author explains what McAfee saw as the problem:

The document, entitled “McAfee FAQ on bad DAT issue,” is written in Q&A format and includes the following exchange:

How did this DAT file get through McAfee’s Quality Assurance process?

There are two primary causes for why this DAT file got through our quality processes:

– Some specific steps of the existing Quality Assurance processes were not followed: Standard Peer Review of the driver was not done, and the Risk Assessment of the driver in question was inadequate. Had it been adequate it would have triggered additional Quality Assurance steps.

– there was inadequate coverage of Product and Operating System combinations in the test systems used. Specifically, XP SP3 with VSE 8.7 was not included in the test configuration at the time of release.

This is amazing. There were most likely millions of systems brought down. The press details some from the US, UK, Australia and all around the world. The response from McAfee was minimal to say the least. The problem is that there will most likely be a set of class action suits and this will destroy the company. Sloppy.....and deadly.