Unexplained spike in Direct Traffic since May 19th

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Problem description:    
Unexplained spike in direct traffic since May 19th (+118,57%). Extra visits 
only generated by users that visited the website through Internet Explorer. The 
quality of the gained traffic is way below average in comparison with the data 
before May 19th:

Most important consequential Internet Explorer user, direct traffic results:

% Change (May 12th- May 18th versus May 19th-May 25th):
Total Visits direct traffic:    +118.57%
IE user direct traffic:     +175.62%

IE user pages/visit:        -44.46%
IE user avg. time on site:  -59.81% 
IE Bounce Rate          -11.70% 

Increase in Visits per IE version:
IE 8 +168%
IE7  +253%
IE9  +100%
IE6  +231%

Checked facts:
-No corresponding peaks and/or drops in other traffic sources or campaigns
-The increase in direct traffic is scattered over loads of different landing 
pages
-No emails or links in emails were sent around May 19th
-No documents were sent around May 19th
-No new links (javascript/flash/other) were created around May 19th
-No new pages were added to the site around May 19th

Website situation:
Our client redirected the main domain to a subdomain (in November 2009) which 
serves as a hub page where visitors can choose whether to visit the Classic 
View or the renewed view. The hub page and classic view share the same GA 
account but the renewed view has its own unique GA account. The described 
problem only occurs in the GA account of the renewed view section of the 
website with no redirects in it.  

Probable causes:
On May 18th Google released an updated version of the GA log files:
http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/community/gajs_changelog.html

Could it be the updated log file causing the issue here? I’ve checked the 
accounts of multiple other clients and they don;t seem to display any peaks or 
drops around May 18th.

Expected output:
I hope that someone can help me defining the cause of the sudden increase in 
Direct Traffic. All tips and tricks are welcome

Thanks in advance!

Original issue reported on code.google.com by analytic...@gmail.com on 29 Jul 2011 at 8:44

[GoogleCodeExporter]

could this be big brother watching?

Original comment by allen.ma...@gmail.com on 10 Apr 2014 at 4:02

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi #15 above - we have traffic sharts now that look exactly like yours - all 
traffic is from Gaineville Florida in our case, using Chrome, different IP's 
all on Cox Communications, all bounces, all goes to our homepage only. Has 
anyone on here had any luck with a solution?

Original comment by mbrunoal...@gmail.com on 24 Jul 2014 at 12:44

[GoogleCodeExporter]

i`m having the same problem, mine is from chico, california, anda comes from 
PSINET INC. 

Original comment by vendas...@gmail.com on 11 Sep 2014 at 10:36

[GoogleCodeExporter]

We are also experiencing same issue with our site http://www.rangoutlet.com. It 
is crawling all the pages and spend 20-30 mints. I'm receiving these request 
from NJ with gpotato.net domain. Browser name is safari. would it harm my site, 
site visitors? is it just another bot? should i be concerned on this?

Please let me know if you have more information on this. 

Original comment by rangout...@gmail.com on 22 Oct 2014 at 9:41