I'll repeat my own post from Wilders rather than referencing it here, in response to those who want severe punishment like termination for the lowest level AlWil guy who made a mistake. Comodo solved their massive database problem by apparently terminating the guy-this is often referred to as the "fire the janitor" approach, since obviously you had to protect management from blame.
"I certainly think revenge is a silly idea-even excellent employees sometimes make mistakes, especially in the press of other activities. This is a management issue, not a "fire the janitor because he is the lowest guy" issue. But still waiting to see what Avast! plans to do to make their system more bulletproof. A few that come to mind (along with a bit more formal QA/signoff of updates with final test before release):
1. Provide a 7/24 watch for issues like this that come up. An official response immediately from someone at Alwil, including pulling the update with a message to users, could have cut out a lot of the damage. Or in this case, even providing a regression database to install.
2. Provide a way to ignore FPs conveniently in the program, including changing the program defaults, so that at least more experienced users can deal with FPs.
3. Provide some aids to the users in the case of anomalous behavior like this (remember expert systems in v5) to give some hints at what to try-like turning off standard shield and file system shield, with the warning that this also turns off protection and what can be done about that.
I tend to trust someone who has gone through trial by fire and provided an acceptable answer more than someone who says it will never happen to them. In any case, my 4 computers are all still running Avast!"
So I advise all of the concerned parties to take a hard look at what Alwil proposes to do to bulletproof their system. If you are satisfied, you have no reason for a change. If not, talk further to them about what it might take to alleviate more of your concerns. If that still doesn't work, try MSE or Prevx or another of your favorites for a while and see if they make you feel safer-or until those products have their next major gaff.
