OneCare labels Gmail a virus

Rival webmail system flagged infected by Microsoft AV.

A number of users of Microsoft's anti-virus product Windows Live OneCare have reported being warned of a virus infection when trying to check their email on Google's Gmail webmail service. The warnings seem to coincide with installation of the recently released, updated web browser Internet Explorer 7.

Numerous posts on both OneCare and Gmail forums have reported sightings of the warning over the weekend, which appears to occur only after upgrading to the new web browser. The infection is labelled 'Bat/BWG.A', but little further information is available from either Google or Microsoft regarding the cause of the issue. One Gmail user was apparently instructed to delete all his archived mail by a OneCare support technician, while others have been advised to clear their web caches, to little effect. Many have suggested a false positive from the Microsoft product, while others have assumed the detection is an attempt to block access to rival services.

Some forum postings can be viewed at Microsoft's OneCare help centre or at the Gmail problem forum. Very little information on the Bat/BWG.A virus is available at Microsoft's threat centre, here, although a similarly named email worm is described by Trend Micro, here.

13 November 2006

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