Google says sorry for potentially giving users sexy virus

Google has apologised for an internal error that may have caused fans of its popular video site to inadvertently download the Kama Sutra virus.

On Tuesday this week, three items were posted on the Google Video blog that may have contained the mass mailing worm, officially called W32/Kasper.A@mm, which obliterates registry keys and files.

The red-faced search giant says the problem has since been rectified but was forced to publicly say sorry to affected downloaders.

It is unclear how many of the blog's 50,000 subscribers were hit by the error.

The company urged concerned users to run an antivirus check to remove any potential infection, either using their own software or by downloading the Google Pack, which contains Symantec's Norton AntiVirus software.

"An internal moderator of a list inadvertently allowed a couple of outside messages, which contained a virus, to be sent to the Google Video list," a Google spokesperson told IT PRO.

"We recognised the error almost immediately and took quick action to notify those on the list and suggest measures they may want to take to protect themselves...We regret the mistake and any inconvenience it caused. Internally, we have used the situation as a reminder to moderators of all lists to carefully review messages before allowing them to be distributed."

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