Symantec fixes email-deleting bug

NEWS By Winston Chai Almost a month since its initial discovery, Symantec has issued a fix for a serious bug in its internet security software. The flaw in Norton Internet Security 2003 was known to delete incoming email messages of selected users. According to Norman Kohlberger, Symantec's senior regional product manager, the bug stems from a memory allocation problem with Norton Spam Alert, a feature within the firm's online security software. He said the mail deletion glitch, which affects users of Microsoft Outlook Express, can occur when one of three conditions are present - when the computer is on for prolonged periods without rebooting, when the user receives a large number of email messages or when the email client frequently checks the server for new messages. Kohlberger declined to reveal the number of users affected, but said that the company has only received "a very small number of complaints". He added a user first reported the problem on the company's discussion group on 14 October. "Because this is such an uncommon occurrence, it took the product management team time to replicate the problem," Kohlberger said. Symantec released a patch for English-language versions of the software via its Liveupdate service last week. Winston Chai writes for CNET Asia