Crisis Averted: The Google Bug that Almost DESTROYED THE WORLD! /s

A fellow by the name of James Breckenridge  from the UK apparently found a way (via a bug) to remove any website from Google’s index with use of a simple URL rewrite. On July 19th, he made a post on his blog, JamesBreckenridge.co.uk with details on how to perform the devious act. He didn’t need access to or control of the website he wanted to block through webmaster tools. According to James, when testing the bug he was able to remove a website he owns, a url of a large well known website, and a friend’s blog with their permission.  Not surprisingly, he couldn’t initially find a way to get a hold of Google or notify anyone about the bug, so he simply posted it online in order to get some attention.

Luckily for the interwebs, James seems to be a man made of strong moral fiber and he publicized the bug, instead of keeping it to himself and/or reeking havoc on the world as we know it… {don tinfoil hat} by causing governments, corporations, and hacker groups to retaliate against each other based on what they would have perceived to be a cyber attack directed at them from a rival which would then lead to the start of  Armageddon… which is probably what I would have done, because it sounds a lot more fun. I guess I’ll still have to hold out for the inevitable robot apocalypse or planetary take-over by radioactive alien platypuses in order to witness the end of humanity.

Google was somehow made  aware of the bug and they rolled out a fix within 7 hours of receiving the report. While Google’s response time was great; this bug had the potential to cause serious harm had it been found by a more nefarious party. Heck, who’s to say that it wasn’t already being employed to kill the traffic to someone’s business or political competitor? Once again I’m forced to ask myself if so much power should rest in the hands any single company or entity. Sure this particular bug was fixed as far as the public is concerned, but what about the people closer to the source? All it takes is an opportunistic engineer with a bit too much access to cause some serious harm to the lives or livelihoods of the many denizens of the interwebs.

For now all we can do is hope and pray that everyone at Google believes in the mantra: “Don’t Be Evil”.

{tinfoil hat- free zone}

For the complete story, head on over to James’ Blog.

Screen Shot by James Breckenridge

Screen Shot by James Breckenridge