Should You Worry About Windows Defender’s ‘Behavior:Win32/Hive.ZY’ Error?

Windows Defender is the default security solution embedded in Windows OS. It has improved with time and now offers cloud-based protection. But yesterday, it flagged a wrong file as a virus threat and wreaked havoc among Windows users. Even after taking the recommended action, the Defender app continued to report the error.

Thankfully, it wasn’t any underlying threat but a false positive issue due to a recent update to the app. With the new update, the app began flagging most chromium-based browsers and Electron-based apps like WhatsApp and Discord.

Is ‘Behavior:Win32/Hive.ZY’ Error an actual virus?

Well, no. ‘Behavior:Win32/Hive.ZY’ Error isn’t a virus and is a false positive detected by Windows defender. The problem seems to be with users who recently updated Defender and started facing this issue. Some experienced users suggested that the issue could be fixed with a patch by Microsoft. Even the Microsoft Support forums were filled with multiple users reporting the issue.

The Defender team recognized the issue sometime later and promised to release a fix soon. As of writing this post, the official fixes are live and can be downloaded from the official link. You can also go to the virus and threat protection center in Windows Security app and download the new update from there.

‘Behavior:Win32/Hive.ZY’ Error is not the first false positive flagged by Defender. Earlier, it flagged some Google Chrome updates as a threat and isolated them in the app. Similarly, it flagged Microsoft Office updates as ransomware threats. However, these errors were also patched soon by Microsoft. If you encounter a persistent threat reporting like this on your system, especially after a recent update, it is most probably a bug in the update file. Visit Microsoft forums and check if others are facing the same issue before taking action against the reported threat.