Google News Causes a Stock Market Sell-Off
Google News has some oddities. Sometimes, it does not recognize the country from which the connection to the Google site is made. It will start serving news from a foreign country. At other times, old news will be listed as a fresh story. When this happened recently, Wall Street reacted and one stock plummeted:
“The US Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a “preliminary inquiry” into how an outdated bankruptcy story sparked a $1 billion run on an airline’s stock value.
The article about how United Airlines filed for bankruptcy in 2002 was revived when it showed up on a newspaper site’s “most viewed” section on Monday.
From there it was picked up by Google News and later seen by alarmed stockholders. The stock plunged from around $12 to just $3 a share before trading was halted.”
link: Probe into how Google mix-up caused $1 billion run on United
As users of Google News know, listing errors do occur. This recent incident is ample evidence to hackers how they can move the market in a significant manner. Spam mailings could not move a market like this. However, a misplaced story on Google allegedly can roil market and have millions of dollars change hands. It is duly noted by hackers.
Catherine Forsythe
Tags: finance, Google, hackers, News, security, Stock Market, United Airlines
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