Panda antivirus update causes two of its security programs to quarantine its own files.
It’s common for security software to detect what is known as “false positives” (perfectly harmless files incorrectly identified as malicious.) However an update to Panda security went one step further by identifying its own files as malware.
As a result, the security program quarantined its own core component files, resulting in the software not working. Two Panda programs were affected by the update, its Cloud Protection program and its 2015 Retail program.
Pretty embarrassing, and to make matters worse, restarting your computer – the general go-to response for most people when things stop working – actually made the situation worse.
Computers with the Panda security software installed would have been unable to connect to the Internet. Some computers were left unusable.
Panda were quick to resolve the issue with another update, and according to their blog post the majority of computers have now been fixed, though having your security software detect and quarantine itself is hardly a great advert for your product.
If you are one of the few customers yet to receive the latest update, make sure you get it quick and don’t restart your computer!
Is your security software hopeless or outdated? Or both? Check our recommended security software for 2015 here.