Malware warning issues

[Meredi86]

First i am completely aware that this post is in the wrong board. The reason will become apparent as to why i have placed it here.

Ever since i have come back off holiday (last weekend) i have been having major troubles with these forums. When i try to access anything outside of this board i get redirected to a google website, or am issued a safari warning, that this website contains malware that may infect my computer and destroy my livelyhood in the process. To start with i wasnt too bothered as i only noticed it sporadically, but now i am unable to access my control panel, i can only browse this board, and then about half of the posts i cannot enter.

I wouldnt be too bothered about this but i am inside an office network. The google analytics that i am shown when trying to access via google suggest that over the past 30 days there have been thousands of malware downloads from this site, infecting many many computers, and it also reports that the site is involved with other more suspect websites.

Now im not 100% sure that i believe google, they may be my favourite search engine, but not the best of companies, so there is a possibility that they are just lying and being horrible to this great forum. But it is really starting to grind my gears that i cannot access about 80% of this website.

Has anyone else seen this recently? is there anything that can be done about it other than trying to get google to explain themselves? Or more malevolently, has this forum been seduced by the dark side of the force?

[davejas69]

I have seen this as well, I use this site quite often for research in learning
development and couldn't even get on yesterday because of the constant warnings. I was intending to post a similar message as yours because the
"off topic" category is infected as well and I do not want to take a chance and
bypass the warnings.

For some reason, I am able to get on this part of the site, it is frustrating though as most of the site is now unusable.

Hoping to learn if the issue is being addressed and/or how many others are
noticing this. I personally don't want to take a chance and will continue to
heed the warnings. Hope it is resolved soon.

[Meredi86]

well i am at least glad that it is not just me then!! lets see if there are others...

[dapis]

Originally Posted by Meredi86

well i am at least glad that it is not just me then!! lets see if there are others...

Hopefully an admin will address these issues in a non-flagged message such as this one.

[Meredi86]

here is on hoping for that, but kinda didnt want to just leave it as it has been a few days now and sill nothing, just trying to be helpful

[cye]

same malware issues here.

[Meredi86]

Bump, just to make sure the issue isnt forgotten

[nestedloop]

Originally Posted by Meredi86

Bump, just to make sure the issue isnt forgotten

I am very new to this forum, at the moment I have absolutely no problem accessing any part of the forum (none that I have tried to access, that is), but I remember that on my first day I had the exact same problem, and actually disabled those warnings altogether from my browser...

I know its a risky move, but as I don't usually click random links I guess I am safe enough. And the quality of this forum outweighs the risk, in my opinion.

So, just as a temporary measure, if you really need to access some other sections, you could try disabling those warning yourselves.

Cheers.

[Meredi86]

i see your arguments nested. i personally have been wondering as to wether i should disable them or not based on the fact that if there is anything there (i agree a quality forum here so i think not) i dont believe that they would infect our macs - im a little more out of touch these days but last i checked there wasnt much in the way of spy/malware etc out for the mac yet.

But still i think that it is something that needs addressing as it could put future users off the forums - before they see the quality they see the crud, annoying indeed but it can be the way of the net unfortunately

[nestedloop]

Originally Posted by Meredi86

i see your arguments nested. i personally have been wondering as to wether i should disable them or not based on the fact that if there is anything there (i agree a quality forum here so i think not) i dont believe that they would infect our macs - im a little more out of touch these days but last i checked there wasnt much in the way of spy/malware etc out for the mac yet.

But still i think that it is something that needs addressing as it could put future users off the forums - before they see the quality they see the crud, annoying indeed but it can be the way of the net unfortunately

Of course, I 100% agree that it is an important issue, and it must be somehow handled if the forum is to continue growing.

My remark was just intended to help those who desperately need to access some info on the boards and cannot because of those malware warnings

[missing_no]

For me it's only when I try to access it through Google Chrome Browser. The Escapist (funny news site) also gives me these BS message on Chrome. It has something to do with how the sites are coded (live update/php/https) that must set off a red flag to Chrome's security.

It defintely worries me, cause what if I think it's crying wolf when something serious could be happening.

[kampftrinker]

I don't get the warnings in ie, but i also get no warnings from my anti-virus (fully up to date).

I thing (as others have suggested) they may be false positives(hopefully).

Mick

[baja_yu]

The reports are from Google Chrome. I get them too but only for the Legal, App Store section. Some spammer probably posted a link to a bad website and Google picked up on that so that's why it gives a warning.

[Meredi86]

Interesting to hear the thoughts on Chrome. But in my case i am on safari, and don even have Chrome installed. Looks like the worst browser (IE) as was mentioned is the only one not doing it lol.

But Missing_no has the reason we should try and keep on top of it, The boy who cried wolf never came back the las time around...