Google Watch - Google Goofs - Google Accidentally Sends Virus in Mass E-Mail

Google Accidentally Sends Virus in Mass E-Mail

Written By
Steve Bryant
Steve Bryant
Nov 9, 2006
1 minute read
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In a sign that quality control problems at Google persist, the Google Video team sent an e-mail to about 50,000 recipients yesterday that may have contained a virus.

The e-mail was sent to a discussion list focused on its Google Video blog.

“On Tuesday evening, three posts were made to the Google Video Blog-group that should not have been posted,” Google said in a statement. “Some of these posts may have contained a virus called W32/Kapser.A@mm — a mass mailing worm. If you think you have downloaded this virus from the group or an e-mail message, we recommend you run your antivirus program to remove it.”

Google has recently suffered from several accidental postings to its corporate blogs.

Update: I received this email from a Google rep: ” To explain the situation, an internal moderator inadvertently allowed a couple of outside messages, which contained a virus, to be sent to the announcement list for the Google Video blog (via Google Groups). We recognized the error almost immediately and took quick action to notify those on the list and suggest measures they may want to take to protect themselves. This notice can be found at http://tinyurl.com/y3rmsv [ed: that’s the same URL as linked above]. We regret the mistake and any inconvenience it caused. Internally, we have used the situation as a reminder to moderators of all lists to carefully review messages before allowing them to be distributed.”

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