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Microsoft Security Products Flag Google Chrome As a Virus
New submitter maeltor writes "Reports poured in this morning that Microsoft's security products, namely Microsoft Security Essentials and Forefront Client Security, were flagging Google Chrome as a virus (PWS:Win32/Zbot) and removing the browser if users chose to clean and reboot their machines. Users reported that the only way to mitigate the problem was to set MSE and Forefront to 'always allow' Zbot, which is generally considered to be a bad idea."
A Google employee in the above support thread notes that Microsoft has now pushed another update to resolve the issue. "On September 30th, 2011, an incorrect detection for PWS:Win32/Zbot was identified. On September 30th, 2011, Microsoft released an update that addresses the issue. Signature versions 1.113.672.0 and higher include this update."
Good point. Makes you wonder what Chrome might be doing or tracking behind the scenes. Something must have triggered the virus scanner and normal program behaviour just does not do that. Just sayin'.
Well Zbot has a lot of really broad things that you're looking for in terms of detection. So to have something legitimate being nailed wouldn't surprise me, it actually surprises me that other browsers haven't been nailed yet because they do the same things that, that includes IE, Opera and a variety of webkit based ones.
Om, nomnomnom...
Find me a virus scanner that has not once ever come up with a false positive. I bet you can't do it. Please think before jumping to dumb tin foil hattery.