Microsoft update blamed for blue screens; SecurityCoverage steps up to help ISPs respond to their end-users. If you are an ISP or support ISPs, you know the chaos that started to hit your customers this week. ANPI’s ISP services partner, SecurityCoverage, continues to receive calls from customers impacted by this Microsoft update issue and provided an update on what they see directly as well as what they continue to read and hear outside of SecurityCoverage.
The following is an update from SecurityCoverage regarding their efforts to assist ISPs (many are ANPI customers) through the issues affecting many end-users.
This Microsoft issue is not unique or specific to SecureIT, although it is having a direct impact on many SecureIT customers, and we recently learned that Microsoft has pulled patch MS10-015 (KB977165) from their update servers because of continued issues they are receiving. Please see the following for further information.
Microsoft stops serving Windows patch blamed for blue screens
We have read that this patch is specifically related to updating the Microsoft kernel, which is used by numerous third-party programs including SecureIT. This update to the kernel system appears to be a possible cause of the blue screens and boot loops and will manifest itself in the form of STOP messages. For SecureIT, this STOP message may show “SCFltr.sys” as the file impacted. For non-SecureIT systems running other impacted third-party software, we have read reports of the STOP message showing PCI.sys, ATAPI.sys or generic STOP 7e or STEP 7b codes. We have also read that this update extends beyond just XP and is impacting Vista and Windows 7 customers.
An important note in this story is that SecureIT does not install Microsoft patches directly and only reports on whether the Microsoft patch functionality is turned on or off. SecurityCoverage does not receive a pre-release of Microsoft patches for testing prior to the release to the general public. SecurityCoverage reported they received a response from Microsoft’s IDC Kernel test team and is continuing to investigate with them why this issue occurred and, more importantly, what can be done to ensure it doesn’t impact SecureIT customers moving forward.
To their credit SecurityCoverage has tirelessly worked around the clock to address this issue and answer the high call volume coming in to the SecureIT call center. Many of ANPI’s ISP customers have utilized their guidance and assistance since the start of these issues. The high call volume is currently not impacting any of our other services, including ISP help desk support calls. To further assist customers, they brought in additional SecureIT resources who continue to call customers back to help resolve this blue screen and boot loop issue. SecurityCoverage is offering support for ISP partners who were impacted by this Microsoft update issue regardless of whether they are a SecureIT subscriber or not.
Our goal is to help everyone through this issue as quickly as possible as we understand the importance of computers in today’s digital life.
SecureIT Support Team
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