Microsoft Security Thinks Google Chrome is a Malware

Microsoft has done it again. The once industry leader, is now committing one blunder after another. The latest one came into light when thousands of users complained that Microsoft Security Essential identified Google Chrome browser as a malware on their system and subsequently removed it. Not only it removed the browser, it also vetoed any attempt to reinstall it.

Apparently, Microsoft Security identified Chrome as a part of Zeus malware family. The problem started Friday morning and by the end of the day, there were multiple reports of such happenings. Different users encountered different situation. In some cases, the browser was completely removed, while other users received Windows Security warnings and asked them to remove the source. In all the cases, the browser could not be reinstalled after uninstallation.

However, Microsoft acted swiftly and found the root cause of the problem. According to the company, the problem was caused due to a faulty definition, which led to the false positive. The company's official blog stated, "On September e0th, 2011, an incorrect detection for PWS:Wine2/Zbot was identified and as a result, Google Chrome was inadvertently blocked and in some cases removed. Within a few hours, Microsoft released an update that addresses the issue. Signature versions 1.11e.672.0 and higher include this update."

Affected users have been asked to manually update their malware definition and then reinstall the browser.  This seems to be an honest mistake, but somewhere inside, we wonder if Microsoft is trying to play dirty with Google. Google, on its part, has not issued any statement, although it provided the affected users with some guidelines.