Reseller retracts 'alarmist' virus alert

A security product reseller is blaming a glitch in its automated virus alert response system for an alarmist hoax which angry users say was an attempt to drum up sales.

The 'newsflash' alert, sent out last week by McAfee reseller Goldhawk, warned that a bug discovered by the antivirus vendor is "the most destructive ever, and no vaccine has yet been developed". A number was included for telephone sales and special offers on network security products.

One user, responsible for verifying all virus alerts at his company, said it was impossible to get any further information when he phoned.

"It seemed to be a deliberate way of contacting a company. They said if I provided my email address they would send further details of the virus and their services. I persisted in my request for more details but it was obvious at this point they were wasting my time so I hung up," he said.

Shortly after being contacted by Computing, a retraction of the hoax alert was sent out to the original recipients by Goldhawk managing director Nitesh Joshi.

"Our automated alert system stores information from a number of industry sources and checks whether they correspond to known alerts in our extensive database," he said. "On this occasion, our tracking system failed to find this hoax already on our database and, somehow, it was elevated to an automatic alert."

The incident comes in the same week that antivirus vendor Panda Software was accused by rivals of hyping an outbreak of a virus it said was more deadly than the LoveBug.

A poll among Computing Forum members revealed that 20 per cent don't bother verifying alerts.

First published in Computing