LEX18.com - Lexington, KY

Posted: Apr 21, 2010 3:42 PM
Updated: Apr 21, 2010 3:45 PM

Visitation has been cancelled at the Fayette County Detention Center Wednesday night because of computer problems that are the result of a glitch on a statewide network that is causing problems for schools and law enforcement across Kentucky, as well as across the world.

Visitation at the Detention Center is normally from 6-10 p.m.
 
Workplace computers across the world got stuck rebooting themselves Wednesday after an antivirus program identified a normal Windows file as a virus.
     
Antivirus vendor McAfee Inc. confirmed that a software update caused its antivirus program for corporate customers to misidentify a harmless file. It has posted a replacement update for download.

Online users indicated that thousands of computers running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 were affected.

Kentucky State Police Lt. David Jude said Wednesday that state police personnel have been instructed to turn off computers while technicians try to resolve the problem. Jude says the problem has not interrupted the ability of state police to respond to complaints.
     
Kentucky Education Department spokeswoman Lisa Gross says that a temporary fix has been designed for the issues that school districts (and other users) may be experiencing due to the faulty update received from McAfee for users of the company's products.

Technology staff in all 174 school districts have been provided with the temporary fix, Gross said. Gross also said KDE staff is still actively working with McAfee to find a long-term solution to the problem.

Associated Press Wire Services Contributed To This Story.