Subj : Watch out - Microsoft Defender is flagging some legitimate URLs a
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Sat Apr 01 2023 11:00:04

Watch out - Microsoft Defender is flagging some legitimate URLs as harmful

Date:
Sat, 01 Apr 2023 09:46:19 +0000

Description:
Microsoft Defender fixed the issue by reverting a recent update.

FULL STORY
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Microsofts own Defender antivirus program has erroneously labeled a number of 
safe links as malicious, sowing confusion among dozens of users. 

After one of the affected users posted about the problem on Reddit, others 
quickly chimed in, confirming they had seen the same issue. For some, Zoom 
links were classified as malicious, while for others, Googles links, as well. 

Soon after being tipped off, Microsoft took to Twitter to acknowledge the 
problem and to say that its engineers were working on a fix. Trouble viewing 
alerts 

"We're investigating an issue where legitimate URL links are being 
incorrectly marked as malicious by the Microsoft Defender service. 
Additionally, some of the alerts are not showing content as expected," 
Microsoft said . 

"We've confirmed that users are still able to access the legitimate URLs 
despite the false positive alerts. We're investigating why and what part of 
the service is incorrectly identifying legitimate URLs as malicious." 

A later update on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center portal stated that admins 
can expect an increased number of high-severity email message alerts saying A 
potentially malicious URL click was detected, and that they can also expect 
trouble viewing the details by pressing the View alerts link in the messages. 
Read more 

> You won't be able to escape Microsoft Defender on Windows soon 


 > Microsoft Defender review 


 > Here are the best endpoint protection software right now 

"We're reviewing service monitoring telemetry to isolate the root cause and 
develop a remediation plan," Microsoft said. "Impact is specific to any admin 
served through the affected infrastructure." 

A few hours later, Microsoft issued yet another update, saying the false 
positive issue has been addressed. Apparently, the problem was in the 
SafeLinks feature, and its engineers fixed it by reverting recent updates. 

We determined that recent additions to the SafeLinks feature resulted in the 
false alerts and we subsequently reverted these additions to fix the issue, 
Microsoft said in a tweet. More detail can be found in the Microsoft 365 
admin center under DZ534539. Check out the best firewalls 

Via: BleepingComputer



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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-defender-antivirus-is-flagging-legiti
mate-urls-as-harmful


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