McAfee Offers to Reimburse Users Affected by Buggy Security Update

McAfee is offering to repay customers whose Windows PCs were crippled by a buggy update issued last week.

According to a statement on its Website, the company will reimburse affected customers and make them eligible for a two-year extension of their existing McAfee subscription free of charge.

“If you have already incurred costs to repair your PC as a result of this issue, we’re committed to reimbursing reasonable expenses,” the company said in a statement. “Steps to process your reimbursement request will be posted in the next few days.”

IT operations were disrupted for a number of organizations April 21 when McAfee released a DAT file update for its antivirus security software. The update was meant to address an attack targeting Windows PCs, but instead crippled computers running Windows XP Service Pack 3. McAfee said that only half of 1 percent of its corporate customers and an even smaller percentage of users of its consumer products were impacted by the situation.

Those who were, however, faced a Blue Screen or DCOM error and repeated shutdown messages.

The company advised affected users to call a toll-free support number for their country and seek help from McAfee technicians. McAfee has also made the software fix available here, and offered to express deliver a CD to affected users upon request.

“If you are one of a small percentage of McAfee’s consumer customers who has an inoperable or severely impaired PC as a result of the faulty file released earlier this week, we want to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience,” the company said. “Our immediate priority is to get you back up and running.”