• Google Search Bug Caused by Human Error

    Google Search Bug Caused by Human Error

    Techtree News Staff, Feb 02, 2009 1036 hrs IST

    Google updates its list of potentially harmful sites both manually and automatically with data from StopBadware.org

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When Google went crazy on Saturday, most people thought the impossible had happened! Could Google be possibly hacked?

Two days and a slightly controversial Google blog post later, we now know what exactly happened. For those of you who are unaware about this fiasco, on Saturday, for almost an hour, Google search results came with a warning message saying "This site may harm your computer." Even Google's own services were labeled as risky sites - come to think of it, Google had actually blacklisted the entire Internet!






Some initial reports had also mentioned the possibility of a Google hack when entering the address "google.com" did not give the usual Google page but some strange webpage that said "SoGoSearch". As expected, Google did come up with an official explanation. This too raked up a minor controversy, and was then modified.

According to Google, the glitch was the result of a "human" error. Google periodically updates its list of potentially harmful sites using data compiled from a non-profit organization called StopBadware.org. The list, according to Google, is updated both manually and automatically. It was during one of these updates that the popular search engine labeled all sites as being potentially unsafe. This happened when, accidentally, the URL value of "/" was checked and classified as being potentially unsafe. However, the "/" value actually extends to all URLs, resulting in all the websites being blacklisted. The situation continued for almost an hour till the problem was sorted out.

The Google blog post also apologized to everyone affected by the glitch and also to those site owners whose safe sites were labeled as harmful. This is apart from the promise to have more "robust" checks in place to prevent similar issues in the future.

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Discussion Board
(26) Comments
Vincent
,Singapore, on Feb 02, 2009 11:26 AM
Does it need 1 hour for google's sophisticated team to solve this '\' problem?? Hmm..
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Amit
,Blr, on Feb 02, 2009 12:03 PM
Its not just solving the problem, its finding the root cause in the first place. That itself can take some time
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Benoneya
,Jay, on Feb 02, 2009 01:33 PM
Heh, I think an hour is great. better than Microstupid's response time by far!
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Wanderer
,India, on Feb 03, 2009 10:23 PM
Well i think that with reputation google has always lived upto 1 hr is a great response time.
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youc
,ccity, on Feb 07, 2009 10:58 AM
ohh eyecee
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CABSFORD
,Guwahati India, on Feb 03, 2009 10:55 AM
unable to reach gmail.com for last half an hour
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Charlie
,Columbia City, on Feb 03, 2009 04:39 AM
This horrible mess has caused numerous problems on my PC. THANKS A LOT GOOGLE! I thought you could be trusted. Now I've got to get my PC cleaned to clear out the crummy AntiVirus 2009 that your search results downloaded even though I hit Cancel numerous times.
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John Franks
,Alexandria, VA, USA, on Feb 03, 2009 04:35 AM
Most companies enjoy ?security? insofar as they haven?t been targeted, or had an employee make a human error with catastrophic exposure. Price Waterhouse Cooper and Carnegie-Mellon?s CyLab have recent surveys that show the senior executive class to be, basically, clueless regarding IT risk and its tie to overall enterprise (business) risk. Data breaches and thefts are due to a lagging business culture ? absent new eCulture, breaches will, and continue to, increase. For example: Microsoft patched for the worm affecting Heartland 4 months ago. As CIO, I?m constantly seeking things that work, in hopes that good ideas make their way back to me - check your local library: A book that is required reading is "I.T. WARS: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium." It also helps outside agencies understand your values and practices. The author, David Scott, has an interview that is a great exposure: www.businessforum.com/DScott_02.html - The book came to us as a tip from an intern who attended a course at University of Wisconsin, where the book is an MBA text. It has helped us to understand that, while various systems of security are important, no system can overcome laxity, ignorance, or deliberate intent to harm. Necessary is a sustained culture and awareness; an efficient prism through which every activity is viewed from a security perspective prior to action. In the realm of risk, unmanaged possibilities become probabilities ? read the book BEFORE you suffer a bad outcome ? or propagate one.
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Mukesh
,Bhopal, on Feb 02, 2009 05:08 PM
There is always chance of human mistakes. To avoid these, there should always be formal double check procedure (Application Testing) before rolling out any application to production and if the site is like Google, most popular and trusted search engine, this kind of mistakes can led to credibility loss and hence importance of testing increases.
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Joeyohe
,Louisville, Ky., on Feb 02, 2009 04:01 PM
This blog may harm your computer!
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awwwis
,singapore, on Feb 02, 2009 03:53 PM
it's always good to know that google is still human
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ijk
,doha, on Feb 02, 2009 03:39 PM
i read about this today in the newspaper too.
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Madhav Shivpuri
,Tokyo, on Feb 02, 2009 03:37 PM
Normally when changes are to be made in a corporate setting, there are multiple levels of testing and approval, especially for changes from an external party. This process is called Change management. Are big companies exempt?
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Mark M.
,Tampa, FL, on Feb 02, 2009 02:41 PM
Most of the people who have posted to this discussion were human errors I'd love to personally erase.
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Sqa
,Noida, on Feb 02, 2009 02:23 PM
Nice information
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inverse137
,san francisco, on Feb 02, 2009 02:21 PM
"Google Search Bug Caused by Human Error." As opposed to what? Computer error? Of course it was human error. Duh. What a stupid headline.
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Hasnain
,Topi,Pakistan, on Feb 02, 2009 02:20 PM
ha ha...it happened to me too.I first thought it was a browser problem.I tried like three other browsers but the problem persisted.I really thought that something had happened.Anyway Google did a great job by recovering ASAP.
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Maria
,London, on Feb 02, 2009 02:05 PM
Omg this happened to me :P
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Irma
,Denpasar, on Feb 02, 2009 11:49 AM
It's very human. Google is not "god" anyway.
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google
,lancaster, on Feb 02, 2009 01:44 PM
of couse it is. shut up and mind your own buisiness.
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Ronald
,Gadsden, on Feb 02, 2009 01:39 PM
Any programmer can make a mistake. But catching and correcting it in one hour seems great. Microsoft can take ten years and two versions to correct a mistake, and make ten others in the process.
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deni
,solo, on Feb 02, 2009 01:10 PM
it can be happen any time?
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rohit
,kolkata, on Feb 02, 2009 11:49 AM
whoa whose inbox is that in the tab to the left !!!! it has 2569 unread messages!!!
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Rahul Srinivas,
,Mumbai, on Feb 02, 2009 12:47 PM
*cough cough* Looks like I really need to clear my inbox. :P. But hey, its better than my other account which has 17,000 unread mails. :-|
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Blake
,Ft McMurray, on Feb 02, 2009 12:08 PM
holy crap did that actually happen .............. wow i was online on saturday too
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anon
,whk, on Feb 02, 2009 11:56 AM
google was hacked a few time prior mostly defacements but still nothing is unhackable I do believe it may be the ultimate hit for this isreal / palastine conflict
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