Most anti-virus utilities update on a daily basis, usually this isn't very newsworthy but every once in a while an antivirus company messes up and causes mayhem. Yesterday it was Sophos' turn, the company published a new virus definition file that incorrectly identified all software with updating functionality as the Shh/Updater-B virus.
The false positives caused lots of mayhem, online forums were ablaze with questions from worried users and complaints that Sophos's anti-virus tool had either deleted or quarantined update tools from Apple, Google, Java, and other software. Curiously, Sophos even identified its own updating tool as a virus, complicating the push-out of an update to solve the problems.
Sophos offered its apologies on Google+, stating "we are truly sorry for any and all inconveniences, headaches, and lack of sleep this situation has caused you". Details on how to fix the situation can be read at Sophos' Knowledge Base. In some cases it will be necessary to reinstall the security software because certain elements may have been deleted.
