New type of computer virus infects web servers and bulletin boards

Gollnick said:
(I know, this belongs in Gadgets and Gear, but I suspect that more people read Community and this is the sort of thing that needs to be widely read.)
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Being that more people visit here than G&G I'm inclined to let PC related stuff stay. Unless of course, it has to do with PC hardware then maybe I'll send it there.

What I find interesting is that some knucklehead actually sat down and found a way to deliver this virus. Genius! Not only did he write it but he hacked Google!!! Imagine if this guy turned his focus to doing good with his knowledge. He'd be the next Bill gates.
 
From linked story said:
The worm also launches a search on the Google search engine for URLs that use a special string, viewtopic.php, which is common to bulletin boards written using the phpBB software, Hypponen said.

The worm's reliance on Google could be its downfall, however. If the search engine company can block the search text used by Santy.A, it would stop the worm from spreading, he said.

Hypponen said he was trying to contact Google to get the company's help in blocking Santy.A requests.
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If I understand the story correctly, he hasn't hacked Google. It sounds like he is just using them to do a legitimate search for web pages that might be using the vulnerable software package. Google will have an interesting dilemma in how (or whether) to respond. Are so many searches being done by infected servers that it is bogging down Google's own servers? If not, is it a search engine's responsibility to deal with flaws in other people's software? Do they put in special hooks to block this search term? If so, for how long? There will continue to be infected servers out there for months after the main outbreak has been cleared up. Quite a problem.
 
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