Vatican Targeted in Cyber Attack on Google [Zenit]

[Catholic_Press]

Internet Searchers Misdirected

VATICAN CITY, JULY 18, 2010 (Zenit.org).- This weekend the Vatican was targeted in a cyber attack by an unknown person who used the Google Internet search engine to misdirect Web browsers searching for information.

On Saturday, any user who typed the word “Vatican” into the search field on Google’s Web page was directed to the site “www.pedofilo.com” as the first suggestion, rather than the proper Vatican Web page.

Users who entered this site proposed by the search engine viewed a blank page.

More…

 

[curlycool89]

Sounds like someone did a Google bomb. I thought Google was suppose to make these harder to do, but when you have an automated web crawler system it can’t be completely perfect.

 

[Dale_M]

Sounds like someone did a Google bomb. I thought Google was suppose to make these harder to do, but when you have an automated web crawler system it can’t be completely perfect.

If that is the case, then whether it is happen again will depend on how determined the people behind the redirect are. For several months now, some people have been arranging to make a photo of Michelle Obama, which has been morphed to resemble a chimpanzee, the first result when a Google Image search is done for Michelle Obama. After community pressure, Google blocked the image… only to have it appear on another site, which also mysteriously became the first result to a Google Image search. A back and forth ensued, with the photo being moved repeatedly to new sites. Currently the photo is the second result in a Google Image search, so perhaps the people behind it are losing interest.

At any rate, this sort of thing could happen again to the Vatican or Catholic Church if a set of persons decide that it is fun to do so.

 

[pnewton]

These sort of things happen. This site has been attacked a few times by kids looking for kicks.