14 DAY TRIAL // An update that Norton Internet Security received last night is causing serious issues on computers running Windows 7 and Windows 8, as new versions of Internet Explorer are no longer working once the patch is deployed.
Posts on the official community forum of Norton reveal that the issue affects Internet Explorer 9 and newer, so computers powered by Windows 7 and Windows 8 are very likely to experience the same problem.
Right now, no fix is available for customers running Norton Internet Security on their machines, but uninstalling the app completely is reported to be addressing the issue.
And yet, we're receiving messages from users who said that, after removing and reinstalling NIS 2015 on their computers, the patch is automatically reapplied and Internet Explorer once again stops working.
Causing havoc in big companies
Before you ask who on Earth still uses Internet Explorer these days, the answer is pretty simple: companies. Companies do use Internet Explorer to access their own applications and web-based services, so it's easy to figure out that the Norton Internet Security update that was shipped a few hours ago caused havoc for many of them.
Living proof is this statement posted by an IT admin who says that he already contacted Symantec for support, but no fix has been provided:
“We have around 400 computers all with the same issue. We can't use another browser because our primary application will only run in IE. So basically we can't operate until this is fixed. Hopefully this gets resolved soon. Been on hold with Symantec Enterprise Support for nearly an hour waiting on an engineer.”
In the meantime, if removing NIS completely from your computer is not an option (and it shouldn't be, giving the fact that it protects your data against malware), there's always the option to try another browser until a patch is released. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are both said to be working just fine after this patch is deployed.
Update 1: we're receiving reports that an update for this problem has already been released and users are recommended to manually update the security app to get the patch. No reboot is required.
Thank you, Sheeds, for sending this in!
Update 2: Symantec confirmed the problems and said that it was all caused by a corrupt virus definition update delivered to its security products yesterday morning.