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  • From: Paul Jones <pjones AT metalab.unc.edu>
  • To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc: labratz AT metalab.unc.edu
  • Subject: [internetworkers] MyDooms downs Google
  • Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 17:41:28 -0400 (EDT)

according to the Register at
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/26/google_mydoom_infection/

Google goes gimpy from MyDoom infection
By Ashlee Vance in Chicago (ashlee.vance at theregister.co.uk)
Published Monday 26th July 2004 20:23 GMT

A variant of the MyDoom worm this morning triggered an unfortunate mini
denial of service attack on a number of search engines - most notably
Google.

User reports have poured in to The Register noting that numerous searches
have turned up nothing but error messages. Google is blaming MyDoom.O for
the problem, saying the worm is using search engines to try and find
e-mail addresses.

"Once the virus is started, it searched the users files for domain names,"
said (http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?isc=d46940064182f61f40ca333bc3c2f439)
the Internet Storm Center. "Once it spotted a domain name (e.g.
'@example.com', or in 'www.example.com'), it will search various search
engines for valid e-mail addresses within these domains."

A number of news sites appear to have been hit by denial of service
attacks of their own, as readers rushed to spread word of Google's gimpy
condition. This is certainly not the backdrop Google desired for its IPO
price (http://www.theregister.com/2004/07/26/google_prices_ipo/)
announcement. Google plans to trade under the ticker symbol GOOG and is
looking to make shares available at between $108 and $135 a share.

One Register reader also noticed unusual results coming from Google and
Alta Vista on a particular search query. We're getting a Forbidden note on
this Google search
(http://www.google.com/search?q=returned+mail:+data+format+error+message.zip&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8)

and a Gone note on this Alta Vista/Yahoo
(http://www.altavista.com/web/results?q=returned+mail%3A+data+format+error+message.zip&kgs=0&kls=0)

search.

While users throughout the US, UK and France were affected by the search
slowdowns, all appeared to be back up and running smoothly by the
afternoon. Anti-virus vendors were busy updating their virus definitions
to help deal with the problem. ®


==========================================================================
Paul Jones
"Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation." Alasdair Gray
http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/
pjones AT ibiblio.org voice: (919) 962-7600 fax: (919) 962-8071
===========================================================================




  • [internetworkers] MyDooms downs Google, Paul Jones, 07/26/2004

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