Google Warning...

[jungle_jim01]

On a break from the pointing and....from this afternoon every time i open this forum i get a google warning on my computer something like: "warning this site may harm your computer" it's saying it's found malware on this site. Probably i shouldn't be in here but figured i'd post something up for the web manager or anyone else who might have some thoughts on this...argh

hope this gets fixed soon. Cheers

 

[christianb]

The Google warning should read...

"Warning: this site may convert modernists to the joys of the old".

 

[Jill]

My last two visits, including this one, have come up with a warning from Norton security.

Is this happening to anyone else? At least our security is blocking whatever the problem is.

 

[jungle_jim01]

This is the report from Google...a word of warning...it would appear that the site has been infected with malicious software which could infect your computer...hopefully a good spyware program will spot it but i'm no expert.

"What is the current listing status for 85.234.190.0?
This site is not currently listed as suspicious.

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 2 time(s) over the past 90 days.

What happened when Google visited this site?
Of the 8 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 1 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2010-07-29, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2010-07-29.
Malicious software includes 131 exploit(s), 56 trojan(s), 14 scripting exploit(s).

Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including 194.8.250.0/.

This site was hosted on 1 network(s) including AS6851 (BKCNET).

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?
Over the past 90 days, 85.234.190.0 appeared to function as an intermediary for the infection of 226 site(s) including lekarnar.com/, mysofa.es/, threethousand.com.au/.

Has this site hosted malware?
Yes, this site has hosted malicious software over the past 90 days. It infected 70 domain(s), including audiofile.org.ua/, thefabricator.com/, bluechipjournal.co.za/.

Next steps:
Return to the previous page.
If you are the owner of this web site, you can request a review of your site using Google Webmaster Tools. More information about the review process is available in Google's Webmaster Help Center."

Anyone else got any ideas?

 

[jocelyn plummer]

After signing in, I clicked on this post, and got a warning saying that a virus had attacked the computer, and I lost internet connection for a second.

Then, everything was restored, and I was then able to proceed as normal. We are Norton as well.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Running linux - has a different genome to the Micro$oft species. Unlikely your viruses will be able to infect me.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Mmm - so annoying. My main computer has been infected, and can't be used. Which means I'll have to be very quiet until I have another.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I've borrowed Chris' little laptop for the day. He's very cross, he says the main computer will take hours, days, to fix. Worst case he says he'll have to take everything off there and reinstall it.

He said what's particularly nasty about this virus is that it inserts a piece of software that says "Your computer has been infected - would you like the run the anti-virus software?" If you click yes, you get taken to a website that asks for some money for new software to sort your virus out. He wouldn't pay for such a scam, and warns that any such being forced into buying anti-virus software is likely to be a scam, and to do nothing positive for your computer.

I've been banned from using Internet Explorer ever again, as it's vulnerable to viruses in a way that Mozilla Firefox isn't. And this laptop runs Ubuntu which apparently is unlikely to pick up viruses, so hopefully will be OK.

I hope everyone else is OK and has good anti-virus stuff installed.

 

[Penners]

what's particularly nasty about this virus is that it inserts a piece of software that says "Your computer has been infected - would you like the run the anti-virus software?" If you click yes, you get taken to a website that asks for some money for new software to sort your virus out.

Just to reaffirm that, Joce, nobody should ever, ever click "yes" to that kind of invitation. It's almost certain that malware will be placed on your computer, and you'll then be charged for some sort of bogus antimalware software to get rid of it.

I've been banned from using Internet Explorer ever again, as it's vulnerable to viruses in a way that Mozilla Firefox isn't. And this laptop runs Ubuntu which apparently is unlikely to pick up viruses, so hopefully will be OK.

It's possible that Firefox is a little less vulnerable than Internet Explorer. IE is the most popular browser, so malware writers are most likely to target it. But that doesn't mean that Firefox is free from risk.

Ubuntu and other forms of Linux are a great deal safer.

 

[LadyArowana]

I havn't noticed anything strange computerwise when visiting here. Never been shown warnings or anything. I'm on Norton and Firefox. I used to be IE, but at one point when they upgraded I found the thing so utterly hateful that I went to FF and never went back. I hope it gets sorted out soon.

 

[MdB]

Just to add my agreement to what Penners has said. He is absolutely correct.

When you get a pop up to say you have a virus, it is unlikely that you have a virus at this stage, you get the virus when you download the (fake) anti-virus program. It then keeps on asking you for money, which doesn't cure the problem even if you pay it.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I was using my wife's aniquated PC with IE when I started getting windows popping up for Real Player or some such programme. It then asked me if wanted to upgrade it, which foolishly I agreed to. Shortly after I noticed that the PC was sending out messages unprompted by me. I knew this because the out of date antivirus sotfware told me each time it scanned one.

I unplugged the internet connection and ran a full virus scan (using my out of date software) but found nothing. I then went into the "system restore" utility which resets the programme software to how it was at a given date in the past without affecting one's data files. From this it looks like a programme called something like "software distribution v3.0" had been installed that day and two or three days previously. I did a systems restore to a date in mid July and made a note to myself to upgrade the antivirus software. This seems to have fixed things.

My new iMac + Safari was not infected but instead warned me not to go into the site. The warning was still there this morning. I am currently accessing this using IE on a PC through my office firewall.

 

[Moo]

I got the Malware warning yesterday, while I was browsing the forum using Safari on my new iMac, so I quit* and opened Firefox instead.
This morning I was in the middle of reading Nigel's message when the warning popped up again.
So it's back to Firefox for the indefinite future.


*Suspicion of uninvited windows has become a reflex response these days.

 

[Moo]

Does anyone have any idea how such things get into a site?
I don't want to be paranoic, but the two most recent members have yet to post anything, and have given no information about themselves ....

 

[Moo]

And -

No word, yet, from Simon. Does he know?

 

[MdB]

Does anyone have any idea how such things get into a site?
I don't want to be paranoic, but the two most recent members have yet to post anything, and have given no information about themselves ....

There are lots of people with accounts that haven't posted. It seems a common thing to do.

If Simon hasn't been keeping phpBB up to date then a flaw in the software could have allowed the nasty guys in. It is a common problem and something I've had happen to me on one of my sites. Another route for infection is somebody else on the server getting infected and then jumping accounts. There are 270 other sites on the same server as PPUK and if one of them has found a way of corrupting the other sites then that may have been the way in. Finally Simon or one of the other people with a login may have a virus on their own machine which has grabbed the password to PPUK.

 

[Schoolmarm]

Oh no!! I had something AWFUL earlier this year and my laptop became impossible to use. Pop ups were constantly popping up. :?


I had to send it to my son in the end. It came back better than ever but I hope I don't catch it again.

 

[Flyfisher]

I've not had any warnings and everything seems fine here.

I'm using Windows XP with Firefox and the PC is running Avira AntiVir and Spybot, both excellent bits of freeware.

 

[Simon Wright]

I noticed the malware yesterday. My Norton 360 detected it.
I have removed the thread "Midges" which I have reason to believe may have held the source of the problem.
My Norton 360 has not notified me of the presence of the malware since.

 

[biffvernon]

The (presumably fake) malware warning popped up when I opened ppuk a few minutes ago.