Norton Update Causes Crashes in China

An errant update for Norton Antivirus has caused the computers of at least 1,000 users in a China city to crash, several Chinese news sources reported on Monday. According to authorities, the problem was caused by an update on May 18 that accidentally flagged and deleted two essential Windows XP files, causing the system to lock up -- showing the "blue screen of death" -- and fail to reboot.

Experts say that both the traditional and simplified Chinese versions of the Symantec software are affected. The company confirmed that it was aware of the problem and is currently looking into a solution, although no time frame has been given.