An update to BitDefender's antivirus software has crippled PCs running 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and 7.
The BitDefender update quarantined itself and several key Windows system files. The antivirus wrongly identified the files as examples of Trojan.FakeAlert.5, causing the system to crash and not reboot.
"An update that we were working on was uploaded prematurely in our servers," explained BitDefender's CEO Florin Talpes in a company release. "The update affected some of our home user product lines as well as BitDefender Business Client and BitDefender Security for File Servers."
Windows Vista users have already been provided with a patch, but Windows 7 computers are still awaiting an update, which is expected any day.
"Substantially less people have been affected than people think," a spokesman for the firm told PC Pro. He added that the US and France had taken the brunt of the glitch, while the UK and Ireland had escaped relatively unscathed. "Because the false positive update went live midday Saturday, business users weren't set up for updates at that time."
