Trend Micro Sorry, But Not THAT Sorry

[Mulboyne]

Mahendra Negi, CFO and Eva Chen, CEO
Asahi: Trend Micro antivirus fix wasn't tested before release

An antivirus software program update that caused widespread computer problems over the weekend was not thoroughly tested prior to its release, maker Trend Micro Inc. admitted Sunday. A bug in the Virus Buster software caused computer operations to loop, causing affected machines to slow down or crash. The glitch paralyzed rail, media and other online networks for hours in Japan on Saturday. After tens of thousands of computers downloaded and installed the upgrade, their operating systems began experiencing the problems. Tokyo-based Trend Micro admitted the faulty update file was distributed worldwide from its virus research and analysis center in the Philippines without required testing.

PCWorld: Trend Micro: No Compensation for Faulty Update

The number of companies affected by a faulty antivirus update released by Trend Micro during the weekend stands at 652 businesses, but the company has no plans to compensate users for losses they may have incurred as a result, executives said at a news conference on Tuesday. "I am really, really sorry for releasing this product ... [which caused] a lot of trouble for our customers and stopped your businesses working for more than two days," says Eva Chen, chief executive officer at Trend Micro. Despite the problems, Trend Micro does not plan to pay compensation to individuals and corporate clients, says Mahendra Negi, the company's chief financial officer. "We have been focusing on supporting our customers ... we are not looking at compensation," he says. So far, the company has not received any news of legal action by individuals or companies, or of corporate customers withdrawing from contracts with Trend Micro, Negi says.

[Neo-Rio]

I can't see why Trend Micro has to cop it, and Microsoft avoids blame completely even though they released total shit like Windows Me which probably caused far more widespread problems.... and probably still does.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that MS is a monopoly and Trend Micro is in a crowded market of security software companies.

[Mulboyne]

Getting a bit more sorry...

ComputerWorld: Trend Micro to pay for PC repair costs in Japan
Trend Micro Inc. will compensate customers in Japan for the cost of repairing PCs after it delivered a faulty antivirus update to them over the weekend, the company said today. The company won't offer reparation for any loss of business incurred, and the fate of overseas customers remains unclear...All of the company's 3.5 million consumer customers in Japan who purchased VirusBuster will get an additional month of support for free, said Naomi Ikenomoto, a company spokeswoman. Corporate customers who bought one of Trend Micro's enterprise products will also get an extra month's support, she said.
In addition, consumers who called out engineers to repair their PCs and who have receipts for that work will be able to claim costs up to a maximum of $80, the company said. Consumers who do not have receipts but say they were affected will receive an additional three months of free support, for a total of four extra months, Ikenomoto said. Enterprise customers in Japan will also be compensated for the cost of getting their PCs up and running again. The amounts will be judged on a case-by-case basis after negotiations between Trend Micro and each corporate customer, Ikenomoto said. However, Trend Micro will not compensate companies for any loss of business as a result of the faulty update, she said. However, Trend Micro in Japan didn't say how it planned to compensate customers overseas. Dealing with the issue had already cost Trend Micro about '300 million as of Monday, according to Mahendra Negi, the company's chief financial officer.

InformationWeek: Trend Micro Takes Financial Hit From Faulty Virus Update
"We're caught in a hard place," said Scott Larsen, the IT manager for a Centennial, Colo.-based travel firm that was sidelined for nearly eight hours while diagnosing and then fixing, the flaw. "We'd change vendors if we could. But we just renewed our contracts with Trend Micro 30 to 45 days ago...In a letter e-mailed to Trend Micro's chief executive, he claimed that the downtime had cost his company "thousands of dollars in lost business" during the nearly eight hours when travel agents couldn't complete transactions. "With no proactive contact from Trend, no support from Trend (your support lines were closed), and no notice on the Trend site that could be found without 20 to 30 minutes of searching, there was no way to know that Trend had, in fact, issued a pattern file that completely makes the computers it is installed on useless," said Larsen.

[cstaylor]

And this is the reason why the Japanese IT industry must cultivate QA specialists. Ever tried to find a QA person in Japan?

[Skankster]

-
-
If Japan doesnt get on the ball and start making a better effort in QA and paying us QA professionals appropriately while making investment in testing infrastucture and equipment... Your gonna get a lot more of this. >> Mr. Mahendra-san


cheap ass bastards

[moog]

I can't see why Trend Micro has to cop it, and Microsoft avoids blame completely even though they released total shit like Windows Me which probably caused far more widespread problems.... and probably still does.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that MS is a monopoly and Trend Micro is in a crowded market of security software companies.

wow. taking a shot at microsoft is so original...

[Mulboyne]

Washington Times: Japan tech endorsed by U.S. institute
Tokyo, Japan, May. 7 (UPI) -- Japanese scientists said Saturday the Unites States plans to implement a communication network message authentication code technology developed by them. Tetsu Iwata, a research assistant at Ibaraki University, said the technology, known as the cipher-based MAC or CMAC method, has been endorsed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Kyodo News reported. He said the endorsement means CMAC will be used in communication networks within the U.S. government and will virtually become a global standard. The endorsement is the first for an information security technology created in Japan, Iwata said. The researcher said an industry group for copyright protection -- made up of eight firms worldwide, including Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. -- is considering installing the technology. The CMAC technology secures the authenticity of Internet and mobile phone messages by checking if the contents of the message sent have been altered or a third party has assumed being the sender. It also prevents the illegal copying of DVD software.