News on Google fault

Sat Jan 31 17:04:49 UTC 2009

Washington Post:

Google: This Internet May Harm Your Computer:

A glitch in a computer security program embedded deeply into Google's search engine briefly prevented users of the popular search engine from visiting any Web sites turned up in search results this morning. Instead, Google users were redirected to page that warned: "This site may harm your computer."

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Update, 11:46 a.m.: Stopbadware.org, the consortium of industry and academia leaders that handles the database of sites Google lists as harmful, issued the following statement: "This morning, an apparent glitch at Google caused nearly every [update 11:44 am] search listing to carry the "Warning! This site may harm your computer" message. Users who attempted to click through the results saw the "interstitial" warning page that mentions the possibility of badware and refers people to StopBadware.org for more information. This led to a denial of service of our website, as millions of Google users attempted to visit our site for more information. We are working now to bring the site back up. We are also awaiting word from Google about what happened to cause the false warnings."

---full news link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/01/google_this_internet_will_harm.html?wprss=securityfix

-aljuhani