Many users of computers running Microsoft's Windows XP and Kaspersky's antivirus software found themselves cut off from the Internet this week, a tech site reported.
A report on The Next Web cited Twitter posts and forum posts by unhappy users whose Internet access was blocked by Kaspersky's update (version 8.1.0.831).
"Kaspersky Lab has fixed the issue that was causing the Web Anti-Virus component in some products to block Internet access. The error was caused by a database update that was released on Monday, February 4th, at 11:52 a.m., EST," The Next Web quoted Kaspersky as saying in a statement.
It also said the problem was limited to x86 systems with the following Kaspersky Lab products installed:
Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Workstations 6.04 MP4
Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows
Kaspersky Endpoint Security 10 for Windows
Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and 2013
Kaspersky Pure 2.0
"Kaspersky Lab would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused by this database update error. Actions have been taken to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future," Kaspersky said in its statement to The Next Web.
Before the fix was issued, The Next Web noted users complained they could not access internal (company networks) or external (on the Internet) websites, even as many noted Windows 7 did not appear to be affected.
Some users tried rolling back the update while others disabled Kaspersky's Web protection for the moment.
Others manually unblocked the ports 80, 443, and any ports they may have been using for a proxy.
But as of Tuesday morning (in the US), Kaspersky has since issued an update to address the problem.
"The bad news is that in many cases it will require user intervention: the update should install automatically but some users will have to disable the Web protection component first," The Next Web said.
The Next Web noted this was not the first occasional problem caused by faulty updates.
It said the last major one was in May 2012, when Avira crippled PCs by blocking critical Windows processes and third-party software. That was eventually fixed with an update. — TJD, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
