StopBadware Blog : Google glitch causes confusion

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Fil

2009-01-31T11:33:09-05:00

How to disable this "feature" in Firefox? I didn't even know it existed.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Torrence

2009-01-31T11:35:05-05:00

I am told it is your web site and coding that went all crazy. Glitches happen, but what will destroy confidence in a company is keeping quiet. Google has yet to explain what happened. Your headline is wrong. It is not just confusion, but damage to millions of websites that are now flagged as harmful. I will use Yahoo from now on, thank you very much.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by lolTorrence

2009-01-31T11:36:56-05:00

kk, but millions will still use google

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Torrence

2009-01-31T11:39:01-05:00

Google says it is unclear what caused the problem, which is now resolved, but that it will make a statement later. "There was a fault. We don't know the nature of it yet. Everything has been solved. We are still making initial enquiries, " a Google spokesperson told BBC News.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Friðrik Már Jónsson

2009-01-31T11:39:52-05:00

I'm really excited to know what went wrong from a software engineering standpoint. Please keep us posted on what Google says, or post a reference to any official statement they make online.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Maxim Weinstein

2009-01-31T11:54:01-05:00

@Torrence: A false report indicated it was a result of a problem at StopBadware.org. This is not correct. It appears that the false flags were removed fairly quickly and that Google's search results are working properly again.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Sukhinov Anton

2009-01-31T12:01:59-05:00

It still written in «Google Webmaster Tools» that my site is ditributing malware. This message appeared 1 hour ago. Should I request a review, or this notice will be removed automatically later?

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Eric Wernier

2009-01-31T12:04:37-05:00

Wow Torrence, were you really let down for the whole 30 minutes or so? I'm interested to know what happened as well, but it wasn't the end of the world for me. You have a good time with your Yahoo search.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by David Bradley

2009-01-31T12:05:11-05:00

Matt Cutts says Google will make an announcement on their blog soon...

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Mark

2009-01-31T12:08:36-05:00

Does StopBadWare notify websites that it makes malware accusations against? What recourse is provided when websites suffer harm as the result of false StopBadWare accusations?

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Eric Wernier

2009-01-31T12:09:31-05:00

Read the google blog, they have your answers.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Maxim Weinstein

2009-01-31T12:12:53-05:00

@Sukhinov: If a Google search for site:yoursite.com still shows the warning, you should submit the review (through Webmaster Tools for fastest results) and also check your site carefully in case it really was compromised.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Matteo

2009-01-31T12:15:21-05:00

but why the Google News's site went down this afternoon, and what's really happened?

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Maxim Weinstein

2009-01-31T12:16:21-05:00

@Mark: Google actually determines whether a site is bad and puts up the warnings with no involvement from StopBadware.org. We serve as a support mechanism for site owners to assist them in cleaning their sites and navigating the review process. We also offer an appeals-like review process of our own for users who are not having luck with Webmaster Tools. I believe if someone is registered with Webmaster Tools, they will be notified when Google detects their site as bad. They might also attempt to send e-mail to webmaster@domainname, though I'm not sure about that. We may offer a similar notification service across several data providers in the future.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Ingo

2009-01-31T12:16:38-05:00

Here is a short video and some sceenshots from the google bug.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by liz

2009-01-31T12:17:10-05:00

here's Google's blog post about it: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html just good ol' human error. perhaps they will sanitize the blacklist for "/" and other entries moving forward.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Ingo

2009-01-31T12:17:34-05:00

I forgot to post the url: http://blog.polymorph.at/?p=16 ;)

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Chuck Wekch

2009-01-31T12:20:32-05:00

From the Google Blog mentioned: We work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to get our list of URLs. StopBadware carefully researches each consumer complaint to decide fairly whether that URL belongs on the list. Since each case needs to be individually researched, this list is maintained by humans, not algorithms. We periodically receive updates to that list and received one such update to release on the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Jimmy

2009-01-31T12:26:11-05:00

When I search youtube on chrome I get 'www.youtube.com is suspected of being a phising site'. My blog 3 days earlier got flagged by this bullshit system even though it hosts no malware and the IP listed that contains malware isn't on my server. Ditch the stupid system all together if you're going to ignorantly brand websites as guilty until proven innocent. http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://blog.jimmyr.com/High_Quality_on_Youtube_11_2008.php&hl=en

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Matteo

2009-01-31T12:30:03-05:00

For italian user: Informazioni è aggiornamenti qui http://mmblogfree.blogspot.com/2009/01/google-in-tilt.html

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Torrence

2009-01-31T12:30:17-05:00

I am sorry. I just got scared is all. Since malware sites are removed from Google search, I was afraid all my work was going to be gone. I do apologize for being so freaked out. Please forgive me. Peace and Love Tory

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by David Bradley

2009-01-31T12:30:29-05:00

It's fixed and Matt Cutts announced the explanation http://bit.ly/H8Vz

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Diego R

2009-01-31T12:31:49-05:00

Got some people scared, especially my roommate. Check out Google trends now. http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=warning+visiting+this+web+site+may+harm+your+computer!&date=2009-1-31&sa=X

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by ferdi tayfur

2009-01-31T12:34:13-05:00

but why the Google News's site went down this afternoon, and what's really happened?

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Christian

2009-01-31T12:41:37-05:00

This is not good. Now webmasters etc. have to explain this glitch to their users for many days to come. Errors like this SHOULD NOT HAPPEN! As Google basically is THE search engine, a glitch like this has very, very serious impact all over the world. Today I lost a little respect for the code people at Google/StopBadware...

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by AJ Ward

2009-01-31T12:43:38-05:00

Frankly, i =DO NOT WANT= google "protecting" me in this manner. If I click on a link, I EXPECT to go to the site that was referenced. If my computer starts to melt as a result of that action, so be it, MY BAD! STOP INTERFERING WITH MY INTERNET!!!!!!!!!

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Matt

2009-01-31T12:47:46-05:00

AJ Ward, you can still visit the URL - or just use a different search engine. It only affects a tiny fraction of results (except earlier today...)

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Samrat

2009-01-31T12:50:37-05:00

@Maxim Weinstein Googe said it gets data from u which is then updated to their servers and there was an error in the checkin..this doesn't mean that u had given the wrong data.. Google never blamed you.. But you are reading the article in a wrong way..(or am i Wrong!!)

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Pavan Kumar

2009-01-31T12:52:27-05:00

This is really horrible blame game, they blaming you and you throwing mud on them. The sufferers are we users. Anyway, it finally got a good end and that's what we all need. Don't bother who is responsible... :-)

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by JBilinski

2009-01-31T12:55:53-05:00

Everyone clearly just wants to keep their job. This kind of thig is going to happen -- there's no perfect system. Somone may have lost a few bucks, but, I'm sure there's no legal liability (didn't you read that disclaimer?). Bottom line: someone discovered an undesireable feature and hopefully it won't be expressed again.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Tom

2009-01-31T12:57:33-05:00

The people who claim they don't want google protecting them are silly. Besides, google still gives you the URL, you just have to indicate you really wanna go there by copy pasting the URL to your address bar (which takes SECONDS). Also, to the idiot who wanted to turn off the feature in Firefox: Firefox didn't glitch, and if you like getting viruses you can go to Tools -> Preferences -> Security and uncheck the "Block Reported Attack Sites". If you also would like to give your login information to PayPal@notreallypaypal.co.uk/hacks/haxx0r/login, you can also uncheck "Block Reported Web Forgeries".

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Maxim Weinstein

2009-01-31T13:01:27-05:00

@Samrat: It is incorrect that they get their data from us. They generate their own data. @Pavan: We're not interested in pointing fingers, and I don't believe Google is, either. We're trying to ensure that anything stated publicly is factually accurate.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Joergensen

2009-01-31T13:10:26-05:00

This incident was pretty bad in general, but especially within the adultbusiness. As such a substantial part of adult sites are flagged and they should stay that way due to malware, but for those adultsites that adhere to a high degree of security and respecting numerous filters, it is not going to be easy to explain towards their users/customers what happened. I have already received numerous questions by mail concerning webcamsfan.com which has an all time clean record with numerous safeguards. My sites credibility has been damaged.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Tony Evans

2009-01-31T13:10:27-05:00

This is very bad. The person who did the error should be fired.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Mark

2009-01-31T13:18:02-05:00

According to a statement issued this morning by Matt Cutts, "We [Google] work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to get our list of URLs." Mr. Cutts goes on to explain that, "We periodically receive updates to that list and received one such update to release on the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs." See http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html StopBadWare has replied that, "Google generates its own list of badware URLs, and no data that we generate is supposed to affect the warnings in Google’s search listings." Asserting that "no data that we generate is supposed to affect the warnings" is not the same as asserting that StopBadWare did not supply a list with the defective URL at issue. If StopBadWare was responsible for the inclusion of the inclusion the URL of '/' it should admit it now. This incident deserves to be treated with honesty and transparency by StopBadWare. Potentially millions of Adsense publishers and and other online operations suffered financial damages as the result of be falsely identified with malware. Here is a very simple question: Did StopBadWare send Google a defective URL list that led to problem?

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Florian

2009-01-31T13:19:28-05:00

Human errors are possible, but the damage done to many reputable websites is gigantic. I'm pretty shocked that this whole system of flagging doesn't include more verification steps when there is an update, it's obviousely flawed. Incidents like this one could seriousely damage or ruin businesses, I got 3 calls from scared customers.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Great Unwashed

2009-01-31T13:22:08-05:00

So someone made an error, it happens and it is easy to explain to your customers with a link to the google blog. Stop crying, nobody died it was nothing but a minor inconvenience. What is annoying though is google's blog post SUGGESTS that the error (the addition of the / URL) was by StopBadware and StopBadware SUGGEST that it was Google. Both companies made vague statements that hint it was the others fault but do not outright say so and neither have admitted it was their fault. This makes both StopBadware and Google look bad. Politicians often refuse to say "I made a mistake, sorry" and I'm not sure what psychology research this is based on but refusing to do so just makes the person who made the mistake look worse. It would be good for PR if someone put their hands up and said "whoops. my bad." As for changing search engines, yeah right. You might for a couple of days then you will be back on google.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by wmc

2009-01-31T13:23:57-05:00

It's amazing what results an automated update can have. Actually I'd have expected, G would test drive updates on basically everything. But then again, a test phase would probably take too long and give malware sites too much of a headstart... Well, glad it was over quickly.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Lenny Rachitsky

2009-01-31T13:29:43-05:00

Really impressive that Marissa Mayer herself gave such a clear and transparent explanation of what went on, what they did to fix it, and what the impact was. If not for that detailed explanation, I think the public response could have been much worse. A lesson for all large online service providers.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Acai Berry

2009-01-31T13:32:09-05:00

I hope they clear up their statements. Where do they get their data from it does seem to match yours?

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Maxim Weinstein

2009-01-31T13:32:37-05:00

@Mark: Let me clarify. The only URLs we ever submit to Google are ones that they have previously told us are bad and that we are sending back to them because we believe the site should be rescanned to see if the badware is gone. The last such list we sent was yesterday at 5 p.m., and it did not contain a '/' as one of the records.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by CasTex

2009-01-31T13:33:51-05:00

That was weird, my site (http://www.downloadic.com) was seem to be harmless, but now its ok...

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by BdR

2009-01-31T13:36:04-05:00

This is unacceptable! Should not happen again or Google is out and Yahoo is back...

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Gary

2009-01-31T13:47:31-05:00

How odd, that one simple mistake on Google's end can buzz the whole World. Guys, check the blog-search for the term "This site may harm your computer". At the time of this post 1000+ entries for the past few hours and about 20 new posts pop up every minute. Incredible

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by John

2009-01-31T13:47:45-05:00

I wonder if google in any way can be liable for this incident. There is no doubt that the responsibility solely is at Google, but because of this incident, many website owners are facing negative impacts due to wrongful labelling of their website. In example the website http://cybersexcam.vipsexcam.com which was hurt badly today as they had just launched an expensive campaign. Who will cover their losses in this respect?

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by DDR SDRAM

2009-01-31T13:53:47-05:00

Saw this when I got online earlier today. However it took a couple of searches before I actually realized that it wasn't just the first result that I was looking at which suddenly had this status. Whatever the cause, it's nice to know that it's fixed now. Was quite a shock for a moment until I realized that sites all around were affected!

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by This Site May Harm Your Computer

2009-01-31T14:02:53-05:00

Some people just need to step of their high horses. Well done to the Google team for reverting the error swiftly. I mean, most could see this for a max of 40 minutes. I wish our tech team could fix their problems as quickly. But, at the end of the day - human error happens, afterall, We ARE human. The Big G needs to just put a more robust QA in place.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Sam Johnston

2009-01-31T14:15:12-05:00

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this before and figured it was just that I'm using bleeding edge browsers (WebKit and Firefox 3.1b2)... or that as I was trying to index trademarks in response to the Psion Netbook debacle I'd somehow upset the machine. "Moral of the story: Wherever black or white-listing is implemented there are more moving parts and more to go wrong. In this case the offending service provides a tangible benefit (protecting users from malware) but those of you whose leaders are asking for your permission to decide what you can and can't see on the Internet should take heed - is the spectre of censorship and the risk of a national Internet outage really worth the perceived benefit? Will such an outage be rectified within an hour as it was by Google's army of SREs (Site Reliability Engineers)? And perhaps most importantly, will the scope of the list remain confined to that under which it was approved (typically the 'war on everything' from child pornography to terrorism) or will it end up being used for more nefarious purposes? In my opinion the benefit rarely outweighs the (potential) cost."

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by rb

2009-01-31T14:23:35-05:00

The real problem is the lack of checking software on every possible condition.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by William

2009-01-31T14:38:43-05:00

Has anyone noticed that the BitDefender website is listed as malware still?

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by arun

2009-01-31T14:41:43-05:00

Just shows that even the mighty google is prone to error ! However, what is a bit scary is that such a simple error can have such devastating effect on millions of websites and users. Important lesson for all of us as we rely increasingly on technology for everything,

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Moses

2009-01-31T14:54:47-05:00

I wish there is a option to turn off this function.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Kenneth

2009-01-31T15:05:10-05:00

Good the glitch is over. Thought my computer was infected or something like that. Just hope it was a one-time issue. @William: I see the same thing, guess it will be fixed soon.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Ivo

2009-01-31T15:17:26-05:00

You wrote: ...[Update 1:36] Google updated its statement to reflect that StopBadware does not provide Google’s badware data. How comes, that Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience still pronounces you as the cause of the error?! She writes: "...We work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to come up with criteria for maintaining this list, and to provide simple processes for webmasters to remove their site from the list. We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs." Get the full statement at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html One plays with monkeys, one gets bitten!

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Google Error

2009-01-31T15:19:59-05:00

I'm glad to see that google admits it was an error and tell us what really went wrong. that blogpost was far for reassuring than just a plain 'apology' statement. Keep the good work guys, after all nobody is perfect. :)

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Maxim Weinstein

2009-01-31T15:35:41-05:00

@Ivo: She doesn't.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Saquib

2009-01-31T16:07:35-05:00

I really wish to read more and more on that topic, as how it happened, and what was the affected stats? like when stopbadware site goes down, how many hits it receive before being down? and several other statistical information is what I would love to have on this incident:)

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Emilio Vicari

2009-01-31T16:43:08-05:00

To me, as a software developer, it's simply unbelievable that whatever manages those badware entry lists doesn't check for the infamous "/" entry...in a company such as Google someone should have thought about this.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by ryan

2009-01-31T16:47:48-05:00

Are you people seriously so handicapped that if Google disappears or malfunctions you are no longer able to browse the web? This is a pathetic display. "Web 2.0" has made you all like internet babies who need to be spoon-fed their digital content.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Michael

2009-01-31T16:49:34-05:00

Bitdefender is still damaged by this and I wonder when Google will correct their position. I also observed that one of the nets leading sites within the adult industry AWEmpire was going on and off with the remark of "This site may harm your computer" Guess some webmasters out there lost a lot of revenue today and I can't help thinking if this might happen again.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Webdesign Kapeljosie

2009-01-31T16:56:42-05:00

What 1 / can do..

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Michael

2009-01-31T17:00:39-05:00

Various websites are still listed with malware-alerts and Bitdefender which is a wellknown and wellreputed AV-company is suffering from this. I noticed a while ago that a discussionforum for adult webmasters AWEmpire also were facing this issue. The question that remains is whether this will happen again. Unfortunately Im afraid it will.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by @ver

2009-01-31T17:00:45-05:00

Hm... Small bug has broken one of the biggest websystem in the web - google... :-)

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Michael

2009-01-31T17:02:42-05:00

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by John Howard

2009-01-31T17:08:24-05:00

Why do so many people think this is a big deal? Why, just today I saw a person write today that linux is the most virus-free OS in the world and he didn't have to worry about malware and free internet and free software is the natural order of things. Google is one of those free things.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by John Howard

2009-01-31T17:11:45-05:00

What are these Apache errors? Looks like this is the day for false error messages.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Brandon Palmen

2009-01-31T17:25:22-05:00

@John Howard -- As you might imagine, our servers are under a heavy load, and have been for much of the day. We're doing our best to keep everything running smoothly.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by goalpost

2009-01-31T17:25:44-05:00

I did wonder why we got a hit on our Premier league site stats. This isnt good overall for Google!

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Ulco

2009-01-31T17:27:30-05:00

An incredible but unfortunate error from Google. I am happy to see that they have taken responsibility for it and cleared the name of stopbadware.org. Human error is everywhere, kudo's to Google (and you guys) for their quick and public correction.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Themes

2009-01-31T17:35:06-05:00

All our PCs were effected. For a moment there, we thought some new form of Internet browser worm had spread across the network! Good to see everything is back to normal. phew!

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by http://kipram.com/

2009-01-31T17:39:52-05:00

Pure human error

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Maxim Weinstein

2009-01-31T17:42:47-05:00

@Michael: Probably unrelated to this morning's incident, BitDefender.com was flagged due to an extremely rare false positive by Google's scanning. The Google team has corrected this, and the warning will disappear shortly.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by NameGuy

2009-01-31T17:49:34-05:00

The wording of a statement must be made with great care in situations like this... tensions run high when people don't get what they normally take for granted.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Smartone

2009-01-31T17:52:15-05:00

You guys screwed up. Probably you will have to pay 2-3 million bucks to Google!

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by www.google.com/analytics

2009-01-31T18:04:24-05:00

Wrongly labeling all legitimate sites in the world as dangerous to user computers is penny-ante stuff. Another error that Google has sat on was a snaffu in Google Analytics (GA) that corrupted all data for any sites using segments. GA started reporting laughable figures like 0.04 pages per visit (yes, not a typo... and when Google Support got a ticket they were AFRONTED we could doubt that GA is always right) meaning people visited and saw less than one page per visit. It is alleged that GA fixed this with a change to _setVar as of Jan 27, but considering they compleltely messed up average bounce rates, time on page, visits, and basically everything until now, you be the judge. ------------------------------------ Dear Google Analytics User, As an Administrative user on an account that is currently using custom visitor segments in Google Analytics, we would like to inform you of some changes to the _setVar method and its impact on bounce rate and time on page metrics. Starting Wednesday, January 27, 2009 a call to the _setVar method will no longer be counted as an interaction hit with the result that you may see higher bounce rates and more accurate time on page metrics in your reports. [...] Sincerely, The Google Analytics Team

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by makine

2009-01-31T18:15:00-05:00

i love google =)

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Very Concerned IT Person

2009-01-31T18:16:32-05:00

WHAT IF THIS GOOGLE SITUATION HAD BEEN PART OF A COORDINATED INTERNET ATTACK? I am personally aware of these critical *technology* risks: 1. Seven of 13 Internet backbone servers down in 2002 2. Additional Denial of Service attacks on the Internet backbone 3. Major accounting firms have been sending IRS tax return processing offshore for several years 4. Recent major Internet slowdowns in Asia 5. Iran totally offline in early 2008 just before its oil bourse was scheduled to go live 6. Chinese hackers gained access to Department of Defense computers/trojan uploaded into DOD computers 7. Recent CheckFree attack/Identity Theft due to redirection of their domain to a criminal site 8. The intended Fannie Mae sabotage from last October that is just being reported now, possibly with a date of activation of *today* ("Rosenstein says that on that day, Makwana programmed a computer with a malicious code that was set to spread throughout the Fannie Mae network and destroy all data this Saturday. ") What if Fannie Mae is not the only company that was sabotaged?? I have spent a full week trying to escalate a situation that could have been the same as the CheckFree attack by fraudulent redirection in relation to IRS "free file" forwarding to a private organization with a GoDaddy domain created in 12/08 with proxy privacy. I had phone conversations with High Tech Crimes and the IRS free filing manager, but there was no ability to talk with anyone live at Intuit or Quicken, the hosting providers of the only weeks-old/private GoDaddy domain. When the Fannie Mae sabotage was made public, I escalated my concerns about the incredible risk if all of IRS information was forwarded or hacked. Just imagine if everyone's full SSN, exact birthdate, full bank account information, valid e-mail address, UserID/password that could be the same as used for bank access, all W-2 EIN numbers of the employer companies, ... was accessed/stolen! QUESTION: If someone simply attempted to access all of those bank accounts to transfer funds out of the country, WOULD THAT QUALIFY AS A RUN ON ALL BANKS? Would that qualify as a "high tech 9/11"? Then, a couple of days ago, GoDaddy suspended my draft website because "Afilias, the .info registry, recently advised the Abuse Department that the domain zzz.info was associated with malware" and I was given a link to a Google page explaining that another domain was involved and I believe the malware was on its server. I have been unable to get an answer as to whether my shared server had been hacked with malware or "just" that my domain was being forwarded to another site, just as CheckFree had been attacked. Then, on top of my IRS concerns, GoDaddy's having suspended my own domain with the Malware search result, and the Fannie Mae grand jury results about a planned attack for *today*, 1/31/09, Google suddenly is very visibly sabotaged, by accident or by intention (which Google would never/ever admit to). Upon further research, I found that Intuit, where all of the critically personal IRS data is stored, is now owned by Google and they are both located in Mountain View, CA. Both Google and Intuit use www.markmonitor.com as their registrar. That international registrar states that it works with over 50 of the Fortune 100 companies. QUESTION: Could MarkMonitor be accessed (legally or illegally) as it appeared Network Solutions was for the CheckFree redirection attack? Are those Fortune 100 companies at risk, like CheckFree proved to be? THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I LEARNED IS THAT, JUST LIKE 9/11, THERE IS NO "RED ALERT" PROCESS TO REPORT AN INTERNET ATTACK! Even the Chicago commuter trains now have emergency contact information to call or text, if the train is hijacked. I tried every single one of these avenues: Online form: Internet Fraud report via FBI.gov site E-mails: - cert@cert.org - abuse@GoDaddy registrar for possible spoof site - abuse@IANU registrar for possible spoof site (due to a Read Receipt received via GoDaddy proxy with a different domain) - zzz@IRS.gov Phone calls: - Counterterrorism Section (part of National Security Divison below), receptionist transferred me to on duty attorney, a MESSAGE MACHINE WITH NO CALLBACK - National Security Division, receptionist thought I should call DHS, put me on hold for 6-7 minutes (clocked), still couldn't give me DHS phone number - DHS Citizen Line, receptionist transferred me to an executive assistant who indicated he receives quite a few phone calls that he doesn't know how to handle. He gave me the name and phone number for the Director of Community Preparedness (which would be for *after* a disaster). I called - yet another MESSAGE MACHINE WITH NO CALLBACK. NOTE: It is very obvious that those in charge of protecting our country before and after emergencies failed with 9/11, failed with Katrina, and are totally incapable of dealing with an Internet attack of any kind, even though there have already been such attacks. WHY IS THERE NO "RED ALERT" PROCESS TO REPORT AN INTERNET ATTACK?? WHAT IF GOOGLE WERE STILL FAILING AS I WRITE? WHAT IF ALL BANK ACCOUNTS OF IRS E-FILERS WERE BEING CLEANED OUT RIGHT NOW?

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Sam J

2009-01-31T18:19:43-05:00

It's interesting that BitDefender is still flagged as malware... I haven't found a bad word anywhere about them (quite the contrary in fact) and you can be sure that something like this would have ended up in their Wikipedia article at least. It's not just www.bitdefender.com either - it's everything under their domain (eg myaccount.bitdefender.com. They're probably the last company that wants to be accused of being malware - you can be sure that everyone who sees this today won't bother them with their business again. I wonder what the liability situation with false positives is? Sam

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Nik@guru.com

2009-01-31T18:23:59-05:00

Google will not last for long... Facebook will become unreliable source for cash-flow on advertisement.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Mateo

2009-01-31T18:28:15-05:00

I am going to sue somebody!

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Cogmios

2009-01-31T18:28:21-05:00

From a software developer point of view... this will become the biggest example of what can go wrong when putting stuff in production... marking ALL websites in the world as unreliable.... LOL! (well... do you remember some years ago when google marked all websites in thw world as unreliable.... *proest*).

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Krag

2009-01-31T18:36:56-05:00

I am glad Google found the fault so quick! It is funny that billions of web pages were blocked after only one wrong statement...

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Lance

2009-01-31T18:46:41-05:00

Google's been running how long now.. The claim is that this was human error. Yet it would seem illogical to leave such a mission critical piece of the puzzle for Google's search results at a wetware 'eyes-only' level for so long.. That and the fact the story keeps on contradicting itself by shifting blame (first Badware, now some anonymous Google employee) seems a greater tell than what is being said. Wait and see when the anon Google employee decides to fess up..

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Mathurin

2009-01-31T19:02:50-05:00

In french : et bien ça a foutu un sacré boxon tout ça ! Dire qu'on pensé que cela provenait de stopbadware

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Very Concerned IT Person

2009-01-31T19:21:34-05:00

From http://googleblog.blogspot.com/: "We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file." @Cogmios/Lance - isn't "reverted the file" the offshore equivalent phrase for "restored the prior backup"? Exactly who has access to Google production code? Are any of those people from China? Obviously, there was no testing or even a manual code review by a second person of what was checked in to be moved into production. What if in the "rollout", the problem had, instead, spread a trojan everywhere? What if it *was* intentional, just like Fannie Mae and CheckFree? Is the anonymous employee long gone? What if Google was still failing this many hours later? It is my understanding that the power usage leveling of our entire electrical grid requires the Internet, as do ATMs and any debit/credit purchases- Isn't the plotline of this season's TV show, 24, about holding the US hostage via a technology hijacking? If Hollywood can imagine such things, so can others-

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by TheAphid!

2009-01-31T19:31:49-05:00

That person should *NOT* be sacked. He or she is now the BEST person for the job because they will not make that mistake again!

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Kostenlose Kleinanzeigen

2009-01-31T19:34:22-05:00

Hopefully this will not happens again ;-( Are we human, or are we ...

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Remember Google-Hack last time

2009-01-31T19:48:16-05:00

Anyone who remember this here, when guugle got hacked in germany last time?!

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by JAB_au

2009-01-31T19:50:13-05:00

Human error, it's a wonderful thing.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Tomislav

2009-01-31T20:00:27-05:00

At the end of the day me happy. It's not me picking up some annoying worm but Google messed up the internet :)

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by DotA AI Maps

2009-01-31T20:29:58-05:00

Yeah. Human error. Its ok. :)

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by sedat

2009-01-31T20:36:40-05:00

this was really interesting happening, real chaotic and complicated for all web around the world, google is the best search engine..

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Roseli A. Bakar

2009-01-31T20:38:36-05:00

People does make mistake. It happens.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Hok

2009-01-31T20:51:32-05:00

I got Samsung official page as a bad site warning. And I think something isn't right. I am right :). But it is ok. I hope this mistake will not happen again.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by google.com

2009-01-31T21:41:03-05:00

In 8th grade English I learned that we use the passive voice when we've done something wrong and want to avoid taking responsibility, e.g. "the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file."

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by mgmiller57@yahoo.com

2009-01-31T21:56:22-05:00

Yeah, this created some real problems for me this morning. I trusted you guys.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by hr@wuce.net

2009-01-31T22:18:51-05:00

I didn't use google at that time,so I did not miss the problem.I just know this news from yahoo.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by wuce.net

2009-01-31T22:22:45-05:00

I did not use google at that time,so I did not miss the problem.I just know this news from yahoo.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by qwezz

2009-01-31T22:23:19-05:00

I can't believe how ridiculous some people are about this. BFD! This was an error, and certainly no reason to freak out and threaten to stop using Google. Torrence, mgmiller57, etc... you guys need to take a pill. P.S. mgmiller -- enjoy the gay porn subscriptions.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Marge

2009-01-31T22:26:30-05:00

I felt the same way this morning I thought I got a virus on the computer or hijacked. I did go into IE to explore if it was on there end. Couldn't find no one writing about it. I wish google would have informed us at google search to let us know it was on there end.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Aslex

2009-01-31T22:40:17-05:00

I think we have to get down to business and forget about this problem. Imagine the whole world would use msn for search.. how many errors of this classification would we get then...?

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Geo

2009-01-31T22:41:15-05:00

I'll tell you what, it certainly wasn't pleasant having to use Yahoo for those 40 minutes because I couldn't find a darn thing I wanted!

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Panama

2009-01-31T22:50:41-05:00

i think this error can cost google billions in complaints.....

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by I & Y

2009-01-31T22:51:46-05:00

What was very strange was the fact that during the crisis period, the search term "youtube" turned up results that were fine.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by Archy

2009-01-31T23:50:18-05:00

Until now , google does not find out the problem , only said there has an error , in fact it was hacked by someone , how do it say ? You may go to google.com , click the preference button , there has a language version named " HACKER " , this was appear after the search errors . Being no honest company will got a bad result ... I dunno why google cannot just tell it was hacked.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by dmondark

2009-02-01T00:07:47-05:00

No one is perfect unless they say they're perfect. And if they say they're perfect people would expect perfection. It was a "fail" and people will remember it as a fail. In fact, it is already being claimed as a global holiday. The day that google spat on the web. It's OK. Mistakes happen. Errors happen. Forward slashes happen. No one is to blame - except for humans of course. But that's OK too. It was a fun day.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by chetan

2009-02-01T00:08:46-05:00

Search engine really boost the software development speed , We experienced those 40 minutes of human errors , Google is the best search engine among all . A small hole in the big ship can down it to bottom of sea . Google take care .

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by dmondark

2009-02-01T00:12:38-05:00

@chetan For Sergey's sake. Stop submitting the same comment over and over.

Comment on Google glitch causes confusion by seo土坷垃

2009-02-01T00:27:23-05:00

你们的这个服务很好。希望你们能和中国的搜索引擎公司合作，开展这项业务。例如中国的百度。