Update manager falsely reports being up to date when internet is down

[cedial]

Update manager reports that all software is up to date when no internet connection is available. Update manager does NOT report that its check for updates failed due to a misbehaving internet connecton. NOTE: At no point did any other Ubuntu VM or the Windows 8 host have any problem pinging google.com. I had the following weird command window session, which restored the update manager to proper operation:

cedial@TT-64-0408:~$ ping google.com
ping: icmp open socket: Operation not permitted
cedial@TT-64-0408:~$ sudo ping google.com
[sudo] password for cedial:
PING google.com (64.53.251.35) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 53-64-35-251.static.nap.wideopenwest.com (64.53.251.35): icmp_seq=1 ttl=60 time=15.3 ms
64 bytes from 53-64-35-251.static.nap.wideopenwest.com (64.53.251.35): icmp_seq=2 ttl=60 time=12.9 ms
^C
--- google.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3007ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 12.090/13.544/15.341/1.203 ms
cedial@TT-64-0408:~$ sudo chmod u+s `which ping`
cedial@TT-64-0408:~$ ping google.com
PING google.com (64.53.251.46) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 53-64-46-251.static.nap.wideopenwest.com (64.53.251.46): icmp_seq=1 ttl=60 time=12.6 ms
64 bytes from 53-64-46-251.static.nap.wideopenwest.com (64.53.251.46): icmp_seq=2 ttl=60 time=13.6 ms

cedial@TT-64-0408:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Release: 14.04

cedial@TT-64-0408:~$ apt-cache policy update-manager
update-manager:
  Installed: 1:0.196.11
  Candidate: 1:0.196.11
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.196.11 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: update-manager 1:0.196.11
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-24.46-generic 3.13.9
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Mon Apr 14 09:18:53 2014
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/update-manager
GsettingsChanges:
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'show-details' b'true'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'first-run' b'false'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-width' b'484'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'launch-time' b'1397481506'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-08 (5 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Daily amd64 (20140408)
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python3.4
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: update-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)