[ubuntu-za] Google Virus Warning :(

[rdavin at cybersmart.co.za]

Very interesting article.

Going to try to replicate the problem again later on this afternoon.  If 
the problem can't be replicated then it was a Google issue that's been 
resolved.   Otherwise there may be an OpenDNS issue which is what I was 
using before switching over to Telkom's DNS servers.

I'll give more feedback after playing with it this afternoon

Rich

Robert Schumann wrote:
> According to the BBC 
> (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7118452.stm), quote:
>
> A huge campaign to poison web searches and trick people into visiting 
> malicious websites has been thwarted. The booby-trapped websites came 
> up in search results for search terms such as "Christmas gifts" and 
> "hospice". Windows users falling for the trick risked having their 
> machine hijacked and personal information plundered. The criminals 
> poisoned search results using thousands of domains set up to convince 
> search index software they were serious sources of information.
>
> I suspect your DNS tweak coincided with their restoration of service.
>
> Robert.
>
>
> On 11/30/07, * rdavin at cybersmart.co.za 
> <mailto:rdavin at cybersmart.co.za>* <rdavin at cybersmart.co.za 
> <mailto:rdavin at cybersmart.co.za>> wrote:
>
>     Just an update..
>
>     Remembering having serious DNS issues in the past..  Not really
>     understanding this stuff and grasping at straws, I started to think
>     maybe this was an ISP problem.
>
>     Possibly request to Google were being malformed or something..?
>     The next thing I did was change my DNS to 196.25.1.1
>     <http://196.25.1.1> and 196.25.1.11 <http://196.25.1.11>
>
>     Some how, magically things are back to normal and I'm now longer
>     getting
>     this strange response when doing Google searches.
>
>     Just out of curiosity... how in the world could the DNS settings munge
>     my Google request??
>     Was is just a strange coincidence that when I changed DNS servers
>     that
>     things just started working properly?
>
>     Rich
>
>
>
>     rdavin at cybersmart.co.za <mailto:rdavin at cybersmart.co.za> wrote:
>     > Starting this morning I noticed a strange message when doing
>     searches..
>     >
>     > Google returns a message that says:
>     >
>     > [quote]
>     > We're sorry...
>     >
>     > .. but your query looks similar to automated requests from a
>     computer
>     > virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't
>     process
>     > your request right now.
>     >
>     > We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again
>     soon. In
>     > the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been
>     > infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware
>     remover to
>     > make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other
>     spurious software.
>     >
>     > We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again
>     on Google.
>     > To continue searching, please type the characters you see below:
>     >
>     > (captcha box appears here)
>     > [/quote]
>     >
>     > Now this made me concerned..  Thinking it may have been my browsers
>     > settings I changed my home page from Google.com/ncr
>     <http://Google.com/ncr> (ncr = no country
>     > redirect) to Google.com <http://Google.com>.    This didn't
>     solve the problem.    I then
>     > cleared my cache, cookies etc.. The problem still didn't go away.
>     >
>     > I was using SeaMonkey.. so I then switched to Firefox browser..  and
>     > still I am receiving the same message and getting more worried.
>     >
>     > Going over to my wifes windows box and using both of these browsers
>     > everything seemed fine.
>     > Thinking that 'maybe' Google is having a technical problem effecting
>     > Linux browsers, I switched my user agent in Firefox to IE.
>     >
>     > This didn't help and Google still returned the spyware/adware
>     message.
>     > So it appears there is a problem with my Linux machine.   How can I
>     > check my bunto box as this is starting to freak me out a little?
>     >
>     > If anyone can help me out with this one I would really
>     appreciate it.
>     >
>     > Rich
>     >
>     >
>
>
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>

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