Google in difficult position over Kama Sutra mishap

By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service

Google accidentally sent out an email worm to about 50,000 members of its Google Video Blog, the company has admitted.


"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 havedownloaded this virus from the group or an email message, we recommend you run your anti-virus program to remove it."

W32/Kasper.A@mm is better known as the Kama Sutra worm. Discovered in January of this year, it deletes files and registry keys on affected systems. It is blocked by most anti-virus software.

Google uses its Video Blog group to let subscribers know when "interesting and fun" videos have been highlighted on the Google Video Blog. Email to the group's mailing list are posted by a handful of Google employees. This team was responsible for sending out the malicious email Tuesday night, said a Google spokesman.

Stricker did not have any more details but said that internal protocols are now in place to prevent this from happening again.

Google has seen a growing number of technical glitches lately, something observers are attributing to the company's breakneck growth over the past few years. One month ago, hackers found a way to publish a fake post on Google's official blog. The company also experienced service disruptions with its Blogger service recently that have left some users fuming.