Posted by Virus Bulletin on Aug 4, 2006
Sermon software spyware, says Symantec.
Popular software used by Church of England clergy has been mislabelled as spyware by Symantec's Norton software.
The software, called 'Visual Liturgy', is used by vicars for planning sermons and services, but after an update in early July they found a file in the package being flagged as part of the SniperSpy spyware suite. When worried prayers apparently fell on deaf ears at Norton support, church leaders were forced to advise their flocks to start ignoring warnings from their security software, setting a dangerous precedent.
Symantec spokepeople, however, insist they addressed the false positive, and in the wake of media interest have confirmed to the makers of Visual Liturgy that the problem has been resolved.
'We will, of course, be including the file in the clean set for the next round of VB 100% tests', said John Hawes, Technical Consultant at Virus Bulletin. 'That should show us whether Symantec has indeed repented and fixed the issue.'
Read the full story at ZDNet or at the BBC.
Check the original statement from Church House Publishing, the makers of the software, urging users to bombard Symantec with complaints, and a follow-up statement regarding the communication problems between the two companies.
Posted on 04 August 2006 by Virus Bulletin
