AOL subscribers who deploy Symantec's security system had their Internet access disconnected by a recent update.

The issue affected AOL customers using recent editions of Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security; Symantec commented,  “The culprit was an update to the intrusion-prevention system that is part of the security software

"This update incorrectly detected traffic patterns used as part of the AOL connection as a potential risk,"

AOL dial-up customers lost their connection and AOL broadband users were unable to access AOL servers, Symantec also said. “The erroneous update was removed from Symantec's servers about seven hours after it was released, and a corrected version was posted,"

Last Friday an error in McAfee's virus definition file caused the company's consumer and enterprise antivirus products to flag Microsoft's Excel, as well as other applications on users' PCs,