spy1
March 28th, 2002, 11:30 AM
From the latest LangaList:
"2) McAfee's Forced Upgrade?
Dennis Faas, who writes the "Infopackets" site and newsletter (
http://www.infopackets.com/ ), sent this along:
* * This week, my hard drive suddenly became corrupt and I lost
* * over 35 gigabytes of information. While I was lucky enough to
* * salvage my most important files, the rescue operation took
* * over 8 hours to complete.
* * Did my firewall fail and allow hackers to gain control of my
* * system? Was I missing the latest Windows fix from Microsoft's
* * Windows Update web site? Did I forget to update my virus
* * scanner?
* * Uncertain what caused the corruption of my hard drive, I
* * decided to double-check the three possibilities. I quickly
* * moved down the list: my firewall was up to date; there were no
* * new Windows updates from Microsoft. The only other option was
* * to ensure that my McAfee virus scanner had the latest virus
* * definitions (DAT). ...
When Dennis went to the McAfee site, what he found was surprising: Using
the normal update link, he was told that he had to upgrade his AV engine
to a newer version--- in other words, he had to buy a newer copy of
McAfee's software in order to use the latest anti-virus definitions. But
when he poked around the site, he found there still was a way just to
grab the definitions, and that they'd work fine with his current engine:
No upgrade was really needed after all. It appears that McAfee is simply
using strong-arm tactics to try to get people to upgrade, when there's
actually no technical requirement that they do so.
I'm summarizing here because Dennis' email was long; but if you want to
see his full letter, it's here:
http://www.langa.com/extras/mcafee.htm
It raises some very interesting questions about the way McAfee is doing
business..."
PeteNote - Simply one *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * more reason you'll never find anything McAfee on this computer.
"2) McAfee's Forced Upgrade?
Dennis Faas, who writes the "Infopackets" site and newsletter (
http://www.infopackets.com/ ), sent this along:
* * This week, my hard drive suddenly became corrupt and I lost
* * over 35 gigabytes of information. While I was lucky enough to
* * salvage my most important files, the rescue operation took
* * over 8 hours to complete.
* * Did my firewall fail and allow hackers to gain control of my
* * system? Was I missing the latest Windows fix from Microsoft's
* * Windows Update web site? Did I forget to update my virus
* * scanner?
* * Uncertain what caused the corruption of my hard drive, I
* * decided to double-check the three possibilities. I quickly
* * moved down the list: my firewall was up to date; there were no
* * new Windows updates from Microsoft. The only other option was
* * to ensure that my McAfee virus scanner had the latest virus
* * definitions (DAT). ...
When Dennis went to the McAfee site, what he found was surprising: Using
the normal update link, he was told that he had to upgrade his AV engine
to a newer version--- in other words, he had to buy a newer copy of
McAfee's software in order to use the latest anti-virus definitions. But
when he poked around the site, he found there still was a way just to
grab the definitions, and that they'd work fine with his current engine:
No upgrade was really needed after all. It appears that McAfee is simply
using strong-arm tactics to try to get people to upgrade, when there's
actually no technical requirement that they do so.
I'm summarizing here because Dennis' email was long; but if you want to
see his full letter, it's here:
http://www.langa.com/extras/mcafee.htm
It raises some very interesting questions about the way McAfee is doing
business..."
PeteNote - Simply one *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * more reason you'll never find anything McAfee on this computer.