AVG temporarily blocked iTunes, labeling it malware

(Credit: AVG)

AVG's free antivirus product temporarily blocked users from getting to iTunes late last week, detecting it as a Trojan, the company said on Monday.

For about five hours on Friday starting around 4 p.m. PDT, AVG users couldn't access iTunes because of the false alarm.

"AVG discovered the false alarm in the virus signature engine relating to some localization components of iTunes (so not iTunes as a virus but rather some localization components of iTunes) and it was fixed within 5 hours," AVG spokesperson Siobhan MacDermott said in a statement. "AVG would like to apologize for any inconvenience to our users/customers."

AVG was alerted to the problem by customers, who were posting to the AVG and iTunes forums.

While irregular, false positives do happen. Last year, AVG flagged ZoneAlarm as malware and a Windows system file as a Trojan. And earlier this month, Computer Associates' antivirus software mistakenly identified a Windows XP systems file as a virus.

[monkeyfun14]

Well AVG finally gets something right.

Sorry I had to.

[Spartan_458]

It's true. iTunes is a parasite of a program. It's a horrible application.

[Seaspray0]

While many consider the program to be malware, the site should not have been blocked.

[cftilley_dotmac]

ITunes as malware, I agree with that :)

[shevaberg]

Have to agree.. Itunes is Icrap and should be flagged as malware :)

[teachtopia]

Reasons for possibly calling it Malware:
Constantly ask for updates in order to lock more devices out. (note: recent pre scenario)
Wants e-mail address (although not required)
DRM to the max
Want to install unrelated applications such as internet browsers

I am sure you could think of more :-)

[Perry_Clease]

"DRM to the max"

There is no longer DRM in iTunes music tracks

[DrtyDogg]

not in the music, but still in the program, just ask Palm.

[tm_anon]

Funny thing is, I've heard the same arguments claiming Windows to be Malware.

It "constantly" asks for updates in order to lock more software out.
Wants personal information such as full name and location of your machine (although not required)
DRM to the max
Wants to install unrelated applications such as internet browsers.

[cary1]

ROFL!!!!!

iTunes is a bloatware. I didn't know it was a malware too

[pithenumber]

iTunes wants to install a browser on my computer every 3 seconds
its malware!

[baconstang]

AVG, free and worth every penny.

[cary1]

If only could sync my iPhone to Windows Media Player or Real

wishful thinking...

[ducttape36]

wait... you dont mean real player do you? the only thing worse than itunes is real player.

[llungster]

I'd put QuickTIme player up there with Real Player for "worse than iTunes". AVG should flag both of them too :)

[cary1]

well, Real sucks too, but at-least it is faster than iTunes

[jjesusfreak01]

Sorry Cary1, but the ball is in Apple's park for WMP syncing.

[xaduurv]

This is no surprise. Over my time with AVG, it has flagged many legitimate apps as malware and has automatically put them into the virus vault, thereby rendering the app inoperable until I rummage through AVG's GUI trying to find out how to remove it from the virus vault. Games seem to be AVG's prime target with false positives, but there have been some productivity software and OS files that have been falsely accused of being malware as well.

Personally I'm sick of AVG due to all their false positives.

[tm_anon]

Switch to Avira Antivir. Better heuristics engine, less false positives. Check on download.com for reviews.

[Vegaman_Dan]

*shrugs*

Stuff happens. It's fixed now.

[JigenIII]

I uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes because of this...

[wshwe]

So called security software can cause almost as many problems as they claim to fix.

[lloyd_borrett]

For details of how to fix the problem, please see http://www.avg.com.au/index.cfm?section=support&action=tech_bulletins&feature=179

[akuma_619]

I uninstalled AVG because of the many false positives. Now I use ESET.

[bgitt]

Installed AVG 8.5 days ago and now my PC is slower than mucus at and for many minutes after start-up. Why oh why did I let them do me again, Head smack to self X 20! :(

[PCsRfun]

I have been one of the lucky ones - I have never had a problem with AVG. I do notice it labels a lot of things as potential privacy concern (cookies and history files), but it doesn't wipe those out automatically. Thankfully it doesn't seem to slow my system down at all, but then again, I put AVG on my computer right from day one, so I guess it's possible that my machine may be even faster than I realize... Of course, I did have to deactivate their link scanner (or whatever it's called), as that "feature" really did bring my internet browsing to a crawl. So, I'm a happy user for now...

[buyamacjoe]

What is "AVG" and "Antivirus software" never needed it on my mac

[joe_jet]

A virus is something that attacks a computer that actually does something that people care about.

[squee147]

That's becuase apple never large enough market share, and microsoft is full of idiots.

[MarkPharaoh]

Yea, that wasn't fun

[squee147]

AVG is apprently smarter than most of america.