Google Safe Browsing Alert for Surfbirds

[admin]

On Weds, Google flagged our site as containing a link to a site that has malware. We immediately thoroughly checked our own files and data and haven't been able to find any compromised/corrupted files. We're currently doing a database sweep to double-check for hidden files. As soon as we can confirm the site is clean, Google will lift the warning message.

[moorve]

The firefox browser also blocks this site. You can go into Options, Security and then switch of blocking.

[admin]

We resubmitted the site to Google today to have the warnings turned off. Not sure how long it takes for them to process and lift.

We were under malicious attack from Weds-Thurs but the firewall prevented them from doing serious damage and we have since patched up some entrance holes. Over the next couple of weeks, we will still continue to go through the site, looking for any other weaknesses and be on the lookout for further attempts from the malicious bots to poke at the server. As a result, we will be upgrading some areas (such as this forum for instance) which will get a new look and some new functionality.

Please do report if you have any service issues with any area of the site. Blogs are still having some minor security repairs being done to them.

[cuckooroller978]

I use Firefox, and the alert has been lifted.

[mafting]

Admin,

Does this mean that anyone who accessed the site during Weds-Thurs was at risk of infection, or did your firewall prevent the risk to users?

[MichaelF]

Admin,

Does this mean that anyone who accessed the site during Weds-Thurs was at risk of infection, or did your firewall prevent the risk to users?
My browser (firefox) blocked the site.

[mafting]

My browser (firefox) blocked the site.

Yes, but was someone at risk if you ignored the warning and accessed the site?

[MichaelF]

Don't know - I couldn't see any way of getting round the block

[admin]

Admin,

Does this mean that anyone who accessed the site during Weds-Thurs was at risk of infection, or did your firewall prevent the risk to users?

Yes, the alert was lifted today.

We don't think anybody visiting the site should have been infected. We found no malware on our server, however, at least one invisible iframe (link to another server that did likely have malware) had been placed on a few key pages of our site for some number of hours before it was detected and removed. We ran Norton on 2 PCs and a Mac that used the site extensively during the Weds-Thurs timeframe and nothing came up on either machine.

We would never presume that we can protect our users 100% of the time. Thousands of users uploading files and you only need one user who could unknowingly have an infected computer that is uploading a photo to an album (for instance, we did remove an infected photo from an album a few weeks ago). We have to constantly remove bad links occasionally placed both in this forum and in comment spam throughout the site.

We will move as quickly as we can to defend and remove but unfortunately, having good, up to date anti-virus software should also be standard for any internet user these days. The hackers are constantly refining their methods to gain access through holes in the software of all websites. And even if they succeed for just a few hours before getting caught, that's still a good risk for the average internet user not to have their own anti-virus. Between websites and emails, there's too much risk not to have the insurance of something like Norton regularly checking your computer.

[cuckooroller978]

Admin,
Norton still lets a lot of stuff through, relatively speaking. Try ESETNod32.