The company issued a speedy update to its Security Essentials on Sept. 30th after receiving notice from its users regarding errant malware detection by the security product.
Apparently, according to a blog post form the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, Security Essentials incorrectly identified the Google Chrome browser as Zeus malware, also known as the Zbot password stealing trojan.
Infosecurity notes there was some speculation on Twitter as to whether this was simply an error, or an effort by Microsoft to gain market share at the expense of a competitor’s browser. However, no evidence of any such scheme has been made public, and Microsoft quickly moved to update the malware detection signature the same day the problem was discovered.
Microsoft said signature versions 1.113.672.0 and higher include the emergency fix. The company asked that Security Essentials customers manually update the product with the latest signatures and, after updating the definitions, to reinstall the Google Chrome browser.
“We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused our customers”, Microsoft said in its blog post regarding the fix.