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."

Whoops!

[Anonymous Coward]

It looks like they responded within 2 hours - not bad!
Google support ticket with issue and resolution at the top: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=42d6ba02d7eed070&hl=en
I wonder what Chrome did that smelled like Win32/Zbot.

MSE

[Anonymous Coward]

I've found MSE to be terrible at false positives, flagging more than one perfectly valid file on my computer as some sort of malware.

Worse is that if I tell MSE to let me decide what to do with it, then go look up whether someone else had this problem and/or research the virus or whatever, MSE will *automatically* decide after a short time that it needs to delete it and will do so.

It was at this point when I removed MSE in disgust and promised never to touch that filth ever again.

Re:Holy crap!

[bloodhawk]

It is as good as most of the competitors products, plus its free and doesn't bog down the system or constantly nag you with useless information.