What Broke the Google? PC World: "Is Google Falsely Flagging Harmless Sites?"

[Stephanie]

Error? Revenge?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/128509/is_google_falsely_flagging_harmless_sites%20.html

Is Google Falsely Flagging Harmless Sites?
Web site operators say Google is mistakenly warning users that visiting some sites in search results may be dangerous.
Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
Jan 11, 2007 3:00 pm

Some Web site operators are complaining that Google is flagging their sites as containing malicious software when they believe their sites are harmless. At issue is an interstitial page that Google presents when a user clicks on a search result link to a site that Google believes contains malware. The page cautions users with the words "Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!" Google does not block access to the site, but a user must manually type in the Web site address to continue.

Now some organizations with sites that get the warning are complaining that their sites do not contain malicious software, and that the warning is embarrassing. "We have no bad software or installs or anything that would indicate a need to ban people from viewing our site," Matt Blatchley, who works for the Greenbush Southeast Kansas Education Service Center, wrote in a posting to Google Groups.

Appeals Possible, but Slow

Google's interstitial warning page contains a link to StopBadware.org, a project designed to study legal and technical issues concerning spyware, adware, and other malicious software.

StopBadware.org is run by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Oxford University's Internet Institute, and vendor partners such as Google, Sun Microsystems, and Lenovo.

According to an entry in StopBadware.org's question-and-answer page, Google decides whether to flag a Web site based on its own independent scans of the Internet.

StopBadware.org, however, will review Google's decision if a user submits a query to [email protected]. Google will remove the page if the Web site is free of malware.

Organizations with Web sites that produce the Google warning have chafed at the appeals process. Complaints elicit an automated e-mail from StopBadware.org saying it will reply within ten business days.

Malware From Third Parties

"We understand that this may be an incredibly frustrating situation for you," StopBadware.org says. "However, we have found that Web site owners are often not aware that their sites contain or link to badware."

This could occur, StopBadware.org says, if a site contains third-party advertising that has links to other Web sites with malware. Also, an organization's Web server may have been hacked, or the site itself could have been hacked through a security exploit.

Organizations should work with their Web hosting provider to check for security problems, StopBadware.org says. But some site operators object to being flagged without prior warning.

"They (Google) are the king of the Internet," wrote a user on behalf of Kukars Infotech, an IT services business in Rajasthan, India. "If they rank our Web site on top, then they can even humiliate us."

Google officials had no immediate comment.

[mike_c]

1. that's why the word "interstitial" is being inserted into related page searches....

This is pretty messed up.

[originalpckelly]

7. This is hacking with a purpose.

Someone was obviously pissed that their site has been flagged. This is quite a feat, I feel bad for the person who did it though. Even though it didn't really hurt anyone, they'll be sent to prison. I suppose Google can claim lost ad revenue from the period when this was happening, but the person who was improperly labeled malware by Google could counter sue for the same thing.

[Lars39]

2. Took google desktop off....seemed to solve the problem.

AP news was getting a warning. :sillY:

[Stephanie]

3. the problem resolved for everybody

[jobycom]

4. Seems to be fixed now. I've never had Google Desktop, so that wasn't the problem.

It was something on Google's end, and they fixed it.

[PeaceNikki]

5. I don't think it was related to Google Desktop. I think it was just fixed and timed well with your

removal.

[Hugin]

6. I just got that warning on a Wikipedia page.

Then when I clicked anyway, I got some kind of a "Server Error" message.

I was wondering what was up.

[CurtEastPoint]

9. I got the same thing when searching for a popular book. All sites had that. Waited a few and

did the search again and they were clear. Sounds like a Google-burp to me.

[originalpckelly]

8. Very astute conclusion you have drawn!

It is obviously related.

[whirlygigspin]

13. more stinky moves like that and google can kiss modem

what is going on with the internets lately???

Some sorcerers apprentice (read telecommunications companies) are trying to block, clog and can everything as a way to shake money from your pocket.

Hey, here's a suggestion...try actually producing something people would care to pay for instead of looking for more ways to rip us off.

Get a real job, Rushbag Harpo



*this post not available for countries where I don't hold the copyright for myself, myself.

*universal copyright pending patent of fair use on commons common creative commons and all other pending imagined or real rights may or may not exist.

[Ms. Toad]

10. This is actually different from whatever fun

happened this morning with Google.

I got that warning on a site that I'm pretty confident in a few weeks ago - but the warning page did not pop up for every site I visited.

This appears to be a complaint about deliberate but unjustified tags by Google...but perhaps the OP is on to something - perhaps an unjustly tagged site (or maybe one deliberately spreading viruses that got tagged) decided to take revenge and hacked Google.

...A few years ago, my daughter got dinged with a site that was deliberately spreading malware as a way of making money. It dropped her into an infinite loop that required her to accept software from the site (she knew she wasn't supposed to, but wasn't sophisticated enough to know how to get out of the website that seemed to give her only one option). Anyway, within 5 hours, the exponential malware growth was so bad that it took me at least a dozen hours of standard virus removal tools and targeted research and removal for the persistent ones to get the computer cleaned up. Turns out the kid who ran the site lives down the street from us, and his teachers wondered how he got a car that cost upwards of $20,000. A little more research turned up a fair amount of bragging about how he rigged his site to keep referring victims from one site to another and back to his to rack up fees from malware owners. I could see him taking revenge on Google if they flagged him...

[havocmom]

11. Any new search engines competing with the google who might need a boost?

Been sayin for over a decade that the corporations were waging war on the people, and when they got all they could from us, they would be waging war on each other. We see it happening in many industries already, why not internet search engines too?

[Renew Deal]

12. I know of a site that was hacked, and google detected it before anyone else.

There's a site for a company that I know about that had their site hacked to redirect people to Viagra sites. Google detected it and put the warning up. It took the site operator a little while to discover they had the problem, but google got it right.

[Warpy]

14. The conficker worm has everybody paranoid

and they're all looking for the origin, Google included. If anybody says they visited a website and then their puter started running like crap and complains to Google, the website is flagged.