Microsoft Defender says Google Chrome update is ‘Suspicious’! Should you worry?

Microsoft Defender, the anti-malware component of Microsoft Windows, has flagged several Google Chrome updates as harmful. And now, according to Windows system admin's reports, the new Chrome Updates have been marked as suspicious. Several Windows system admin reports have indicated that Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has tagged the browser update as suspicious. Is this a worrying concern for Google Chrome users? Here’s what Microsoft said.

It’s a false alarm!

Surprisingly, following all the reports that pop up in a Microsoft 365 Defender service advisory showing the alarming alerts online for Google Chrome, turned out to be false! Microsoft later revealed that the reports were mistakenly triggered by a "false positive" and not due to malicious activity.

A Microsoft spokesperson clarified to BleepingComputer, "Admins may receive a false positive alert for Google Update on Microsoft Defender for Endpoint monitored devices. We determined these are false positive results and we have updated the logic for this alert to resolve the issue some customers may have experienced."

Later, Microsoft also revealed that it had fixed the issue with the false alarm after around one and a half hours and now users will be able to fully use Microsoft Defender for Endpoint again normally.

This is not the first time..

This is the second instance in the last few months involving Microsoft Defender and false positive warnings. Defender for Endpoint classified several Microsoft Office updates as ransomware threats in March 2022, in a similar event. Microsoft responded quickly to the problem, admitting that it was a false alarm. Defender also blocked users from opening Microsoft Office files and running several applications in early December 2021, resulting in false positives for Emotet malware.

However, in recent months, Google Chrome has been hit by several major security flaws, including plenty of zero-day exploits. Chrome 99.0.4844.84 for Windows, Mac, and Linux users were recently updated to patch a high-severity zero-day vulnerability that allows for remote code execution. Zero-day threats have become a big source of worry for both companies and end-users, with Google's in-house security team recently stating that the number of problems reached a new high in 2021.