Symantec fires off false alarm on WoW update

World of Warcraft denizens are complaining that an anti-virus update published by Symantec over the weekend falsely labelled a component of the game as potentially malign. Instead of throwing spells or wielding axes, fans of the role-playing game who choose Symantec for their security protection complain that the firms is …

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not right.

"You're only supposed to blow the bloody viruses up", shurely?

[Anonymous Coward]

Alert! Goblins detected

"You got-you gotta watch out for them foreigners cuz they plant goblins in their machinery!"

[Anonymous Coward]

fans ... who choose Symantec for their security protection

FOOLS!

That is all...

[Jeroen Braamhaar]

What do you mean, FALSE alarm ?

"World of Warcraft denizens are complaining that an anti-virus update published by Symantec over the weekend falsely labelled a component of the game as potentially malign."

Only POTENTIALLY ?

[Anonymous Coward]

I blame Microsoft

If their crappy OS didn't allow just anybody to willy-nilly install stuff all over your computer it wouldn't be possible. There's a simple rule to follow: One program in one folder. You don't touch the registry; you don't make hidden files; you don't make rootkits; you don't touch anybody else's thing but your own (yeah, she knows what that means).

[Argh]

Unixy?

One program in one folder? Like /usr/bin on Unix-style OSs?

[Jelliphiish]

they chose

symantec? i guess you gets what you pays for. I stopped using them after having a variety of system security circumvention thingies ate various pcs..

weirdly, the free ones i use now have thus far not suffered the same fate..

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair...

...SymanAfee are not alone in screwing up. I recently had the opportunity to learn how to fix a Linux machine after ClamAV had quarantined quite a bit of vital stuff (short story: had to reinstall). The cost of doing business, I suppose.

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't this..

A good thing?

"Warning playing this game could seriously affect your chances of ever getting laid" would be more appropriate.

[Anonymous Coward]

not bloody likely

They'd still have to come out of their mum's basement.

[Steven Knox]

If I'm not mistaken,

that DLL is used to scan system specifications for reporting to Blizzard. So someone unfamiliar with Blizzard's practice (i.e, someone who didn't read the EULA or the Terms of Service or the several messages Blizzard sent to users explaining that they would do so) might report it as a data collector.

So my guess is that this isn't so much Symantec getting a signature wrong as someone not reading the contracts they're entering into.

It's not likely they'll admit to that if that's the case, though.

And I'm not mistaken. See http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=113953399&pageNo=1&sid=1#2

[Tom 13]

You are mistaken but only partially.

Yes the file is covered by Blizards terms of Service and the dweebs on the board should have been quicker to recognize what the file was, but Norton WAS also incorrectly auto deleting the file. One demerit each for the tech board and Norton.

[Frank Bitterlich]

Please DON'T take it seriously!

Really, if I read "[Company] takes [whatever they just messed up] very seriously." just one more time, I'll scream!