Typically, when you think of viruses being mailed across the globe, you might think they originate from an infected home users PC or a rogue mail server. Over time, this has made many people learn to trust familiar email only. Every now and then, however, even that trust can be faltered. Google recently, and unwittingly, sent out about 50,000 emails to various people, all carrying the Kama Sutra virus. Oh Google, for shame. But they are making amends.
The company has now come out and publically apologized for the incident, which affected users of their Video Blog group:
"We're sorry for any inconvenience, and we're taking steps to ensure that this doesn't happen again," the message said. It was not known whether any users' machines had actually been infected by the worm.
Luckily for Google, and the many affected users, the virus is well known and will be picked up by any up to date scanner. Still, that doesn't make people feel better about the incident, which they believe should have been avoided. It was apparently a Google employee that made the mistake, but they are not revealing specific details.