A computer security vendor apologized Thursday (Manila time) for a flawed update that caused its antivirus program to flag many files as infected.

In a blog post, Sophos also reassured users there is no outbreak of the Shh/Updater-B virus, amid many reports that Sophos products flagged files as infected with it.

"Sophos would like to reassure users that these are false positives and are not a malware outbreak, and apologizes for any inconvenience," it said.

The company said it has partially resolved the issue on its cloud-based Live Protection platform.

Users with Live Protection enabled can see the flagged files as being marked "clean," it said.

On the other hand, it said an update, javab-jd.ide, will stop the false detections once it is downloaded and installed.

"There is no cleanup for this detection, and you will see it quarantined unless you have your on-access policy set to move or delete detections if cleanup is not possible," it said.

Sophos also advised users to double-check their antivirus products' cleanup policies, and make sure the "cleanup" does not "deny access" to flagged files. — LBG, GMA News