avast is flipping out

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by Page42, Dec 2, 2009.

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  1. Brocke

    Brocke Registered Member

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    so if it was you then would should get fired? what if you have childern or even a baby at home we needs food, health insurance.

    mistakes happen. yes it big but things happen.
     
  2. Miyagi

    Miyagi Registered Member

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    And that is something ALWIL as a company will do. Thank God, it wasn't a government organization, where you are terminated regardless of human error or not. :eek:
     
  3. Pentangle

    Pentangle Registered Member

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    Absolutely--there's a question of accountability. The individual did not do what was required and caused chaos to countless computer owners who may not all have the technical skills of Wilders or DSLR members. Next time he'll be more careful with something as important as a virus database!
     
  4. Tarq57

    Tarq57 Registered Member

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    I hope the person is not terminated, unless he/she has a history of such casual/careless behaviour/failure to follow procedures.

    And if that is not the case, they will probably never do this again.

    Outside the company (as most of us are) we can not know what quality procedures are in place, what training the person has had, whether they understood the processes they were responsible for, what pressures they were under, nor any of dozens of other possible causal factors. (Sickness, partial incapacitation, typo on a document, equipment outage, background noise...big list of possibles.)

    That Alwil has delivered a quality product for a number of years with very few glitches - certainly nothing of this scale - suggests that the quality control/training and ability/talent of the staff is normally at a high level.

    I understand that some users have been severely affected, but really think in this sort of case it is up to the company to decide what action needs to be taken here, not for us out in the www to start baying for blood.

    Revenge...the emotion that promises so much; delivers so little.
    Retraining...(where applicable), everyone's a winner.

    (FWIW, I work in a safety-critical industry. Risk analysis and mitigation is part of our daily bread and butter. I know a little bit about this sort of thing.)
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2009
  5. clocks

    clocks Registered Member

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    This stuff happens. That's just life. Similar issues have happened to other AV companies. This one incident will not change my opinion of Alwil. I believe they offer one of the best, if not the best, free AV program. All without nag screens, pop-ups, spam emails, etc... They don't remove key features, etc.. They provide it for free. :thumb:
     
  6. sded

    sded Registered Member

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    I certainly think revenge is a silly idea-even excellent employees sometimes make mistakes, especially in the press of other activities. This is a management issue, not a "fire the janitor because he is the lowest guy" issue. But still waiting to see what Avast! plans to do to make their system more bulletproof. A few that come to mind (along with a bit more formal QA/signoff of updates with final test before release):
    1. Provide a 7/24 watch for issues like this that come up. An official response immediately from someone at Alwil, including pulling the update with a message to users, could have cut out a lot of the damage. Or in this case, even providing a regression database to install.
    2. Provide a way to ignore FPs conveniently in the program, including changing the program defaults, so that at least more experienced users can deal with FPs.
    3. Provide some aids to the users in the case of anomalous behavior like this (remember expert systems in v5) to give some hints at what to try-like turning off standard shield and file system shield, with the warning that this also turns off protection and what can be done about that.
    I tend to trust someone who has gone through trial by fire and provided an acceptable answer more than someone who says it will never happen to them. In any case, my 4 computers are all still running Avast!
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2009
  7. Pentangle

    Pentangle Registered Member

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    I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Vlk said "a person didn't follow the common procedure, bypassed some of the checks designed to prevent such screw-ups, and went ahead and released the update." It's not a question of "revenge". It's a matter of intelligent business practices--you can't have employees doing things their own way and ignoring safety procedures. If this employee isn't terminated, he should at least be severely chastised.
     
  8. Baz_kasp

    Baz_kasp Registered Member

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  9. Tarq57

    Tarq57 Registered Member

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    You're quite right. But I read that as a preliminary report/precis.. the bare bones of what happened.
    Now they have to work out why it happened.
    What happens to the employee should fairly depend on that "working-out".
     
  10. Phant0m

    Phant0m Registered Member

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    Like one has said “I hope the person is not terminated, unless he/she has a history of such casual/careless behaviour/failure to follow procedures.”.

    It should be apparent though that this doesn’t happen frequently, in-fact for many years being with Avast!, I have never observed such serious fp. But no anti-system should be trusted fully with whatever detections are made, especially for detects found in \WINDOWS\*.

    I think this is something both parties can learn from and improve upon, just so unfortunate it had to cripple so many!
     
  11. Page42

    Page42 Registered Member

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    My two computers are still running avast, and I suffered no collateral damage at all... just an eye-opening experience.
    This actually changed my opinion of them for the better. Going from real bad to everything's okay in a relatively short span has given me a greater appreciation for what the avast folks do each day and the enormity of the responsibility that rests upon their shoulders.
     
  12. TheIgster

    TheIgster Registered Member

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    +1 :thumb:
     
  13. Vladimyr

    Vladimyr Registered Member

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    Don't get me wrong, this was a serious error, but I phoned relatives & friends running avast! 4.8 yesterday (GMT+11 timezone), 9 PCs altogether. Only 1 had seen any warnings!

    Sweeping generalisation but could it be that Wilders posters are more likely to have had issues than more conservative users with mostly MS apps and few, if any, 3rd party stuff?
     
  14. Exactly the same situation as Comodo. Human error and didn't follow procedure.
     
  15. Vladimyr

    Vladimyr Registered Member

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    ..and during the last 18 months or so at Symantec, AVG, CA, & others.
     
  16. Page42

    Page42 Registered Member

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    It would be the other way around, from my POV... Wilders members being in general, better equipped to handle the type of widespread fp fiasco that came at them via their trusted AV. If your point is that Wilders members have more 3rd party stuff, don't computer manufacturers sell machines loaded with all kinds of crap? And don't these non-Wilders members, in general, tend to install all sorts of programs willy nilly, actually creating a mountain of 3rd party nightmare fps? That would be my thought. :)
     
  17. twl845

    twl845 Registered Member

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    Where I worked they had a saying, that the only people who screw up are the ones that do all the work. The slackers never get in trouble. I think the person who caused the problem is now one of their most valuable employees given this experience.
     
  18. Fajo

    Fajo Registered Member

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    I remember VLK saying that the person was trying to fix another issue. So at least the person was trying to do his or her job. Just got a little to excited and jumped the gun ended up getting shot for it. Remember if it actually would of worked none of us would of been the wiser and the problem would of been solved, that they were trying to fix in the first place.


    Edited
    Fixed typo's
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 4, 2009
  19. Page42

    Page42 Registered Member

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    A very optimistic outlook, for certain... but it is quite possible that you have it entirely wrong. Only Alwil knows for sure. :)
     
  20. rolarocka

    rolarocka Guest

    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 4, 2009
  21. Page42

    Page42 Registered Member

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    I like what Vlk had to say in his detailed explanation on the avast! forum today. And as for this...
    ... I say, give me your cell phone number and I'll ring you whenever I see something like this developing! :D
     
  22. Hugger

    Hugger Registered Member

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    "If for example the evangelists here on the forum had a phone number to call in case of emergency, the problem could have been contained much much faster and the harm done would be incomparably smaller."

    Ah, but just think of what all the bleeding deacons could do with that phone number!
    Everything from asking for a new logo to telling them that they forgot a period at the end of a sentence.
     
  23. Tarq57

    Tarq57 Registered Member

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    An apology link to the blog (by the CEO) now appearing on the main avast.com website.
    Includes a link to an updated forum entry by VLK.
     
  24. twl845

    twl845 Registered Member

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    Boy, this is getting more attention than Tiger Woods. :D
     
  25. Tarq57

    Tarq57 Registered Member

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    When I drove my car off the road years ago, the media didn't come after me. :D
     
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