Google and its Youtube domains are being flagged as malicious by Malwarebytes as of Wednesday morning, blocking users from accessing a whole range of websites.
We had assumed this was an error and not a protest by the antivirus maker against Big Tech nor a sign that Google has been compromised. Indeed, it is a blunder by Malwarebytes’ filters, we’re told.
“Malwarebytes is aware of a temporary issue with the web filtering component of our product that may be blocking certain domains, including google.com,” a Malwarebytes spokesperson told The Register.
Blocked sites include all of the G Suite services such as Google Docs and Gmail, widely used among businesses — which, we have to admit, makes for a pretty legit get-out-of-work excuse — and Chromium-based browsers including Microsoft Edge are also unable to function properly.
Malwarebytes do have a fix
“The issue is now resolved, and the update should happen automatically,” the antivirus biz declared after this story was published. We’ve been able to confirm that is true.
“If you are still experiencing issues, please ensure the Malwarebytes client is updated to the latest version.”