Microsoft Misidentifies Rival's Browser as Malware

Microsoft Corp.’s Security Essentials is supposed make sure that Windows users stay virus-free when they surf the Web. Last week it took its mission a bit too far, removing a popular Web browser entirely.

About 3,000 users of Google Inc.'s Chrome browser found the security tool had removed the browser, which it misidentified as malware, according to a Sept. 30 article on ZDnet.

More specifically, the security program reportedly misidentified Chrome as a password-stealing Trojan. 

Chrome is quickly overtaking Firefox as the No. 2 browser, which sparked concerns by some consumers that Microsoft had begun removing the rival browser on purpose.

Google quickly issued a blog post explaining the situation to its customers and offering step-by-step instructions on how to fix the problem. It is currently working on automatic fix, according to the blog.