Google+ disk space cockup creates notification spam-storm
Selasa, 12 Juli 2011
Google+ blitzed early adopters of the social networking service with spammy notifications over the weekend following a technical glitch. The Chocolate Factory said the problem was due to the service having run out of disk space.
The spam messages carried some of the hallmarks of those generated by dodgy apps of the type that have become a regular nuisance on Facebook over recent months. In reality, however, the messages were the product of bugs in the Google+ code, which had kicked in because the site was unable to cope with early demand.
Vic Gundotra, senior vice-president of social for Google, apologised for the snafu in a status message on his Google+ account.
More commentary on the episode can be found in a blog post by net security firm Sophos here. ®
The spam messages carried some of the hallmarks of those generated by dodgy apps of the type that have become a regular nuisance on Facebook over recent months. In reality, however, the messages were the product of bugs in the Google+ code, which had kicked in because the site was unable to cope with early demand.
Please accept our apologies for the spam we caused this afternoon. For about 80 minutes we ran out of disk space on the service that keeps track of notifications. Hence our system continued to try sending notifications. Over, and over again. Yikes.Google+ is, of course, only a few days old – a newborn in the world of social networking – so problems of one type or another can be expected. Even so, and given its capacity to run its own massive data centres for core operations such as ad brokerage, you wouldn't expect Google to run into problems such as running out of disk space for anything.
We didn't expect to hit these high thresholds so quickly, but we should have.
Thank you for helping us during this field trial, and once again, we are very sorry for the spam.
More commentary on the episode can be found in a blog post by net security firm Sophos here. ®
MS security centre search poisoned with infectious smut
Microsoft has disabled the search results on its Security Centre after malware-spreaders abused the function to promote shady pornographic websites serving Trojans as well as cheap thrills.
Only the Security Section of Microsoft's website was affected by the search-engine poisoning attack. Such attacks are often used to place scareware portals and the like high in the index of searches for terms in the news, such as royal weddings, celebrity deaths and natural disasters.
In the case of the Microsoft security search results, only searches for a limited range of terms return links to dodgy sites. These search terms include "porn" or "streaming" (a much more plausible search term for someone visiting the centre and presumably looking for security-related information rather than cheap thrills). Many of these sites are serving up malware as well as smut, net security firm GFI Software warns.
"Since only specific terms are used, if you search using a different term, say 'united nations', you'll get real, normal results," explains Alex Eckelberry of GFI Software.
"In other words, blackhat SEOs are seeding illegitimate search results within the Microsoft search results. Pretty tricky and impressive. There are a number of ways this could be done (for example, using the ability on the site to Twitter a search result)."
In an update, Eckelberry added that Microsoft has temporarily disabled the search feature on its Security Centre, presumably while it cleans out its search index. ®
Only the Security Section of Microsoft's website was affected by the search-engine poisoning attack. Such attacks are often used to place scareware portals and the like high in the index of searches for terms in the news, such as royal weddings, celebrity deaths and natural disasters.
"In other words, blackhat SEOs are seeding illegitimate search results within the Microsoft search results. Pretty tricky and impressive. There are a number of ways this could be done (for example, using the ability on the site to Twitter a search result)."
In an update, Eckelberry added that Microsoft has temporarily disabled the search feature on its Security Centre, presumably while it cleans out its search index. ®
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