"We have to ask why Google, with the far greater resources available to them, cannot respond better. Indeed much, if not all, of the process could be entirely automated."
The problem lies with the people on the Internet though. I doubt the whole thing could be automated because of the simple fact that there are people out there who, just to troll, would and probably already zip through plenty of legitimate public Google docs and click the "report abuse" link at the bottom of each page.
The result is most likely an overwhelming amount of reported "abuse" pages are most likely legitimate, which is why actual malware docs don't get dealt with in a timely manner. Its like when people prank call 911, which could lead to actual emergencies not being responded to immediately.
I think a reasonable solution here would be to only automate reported abuse with a registered account, and only automate a certain number per account per time. it wouldn't be insurmountable to abuse, but you push the barrier for abuse over the average troll's willingness.
not a perfect solution, but would help cover a sizeable volume of this kind of phishing attacks.
The problem lies with the people on the Internet though. I doubt the whole thing could be automated because of the simple fact that there are people out there who, just to troll, would and probably already zip through plenty of legitimate public Google docs and click the "report abuse" link at the bottom of each page.
The result is most likely an overwhelming amount of reported "abuse" pages are most likely legitimate, which is why actual malware docs don't get dealt with in a timely manner. Its like when people prank call 911, which could lead to actual emergencies not being responded to immediately.