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Fatbirder - site safety/security concerns (1 Viewer)

Fatbirder was attacked by a third party that used its adserver to sneak in some malware... but this has been removed and Google will shortly be asked to review the site and remove their dire warnings... this also effected Birding Top 500... the problem will not re-occur as the backdoor has been plugged with new software... despite what they say Google didn't bother to tell the webmaster about it! Rest assured normal service will shortly be resumed! Fatbirder wishes to thank all those people who let him know about the problem and gave their support against this abuse of the WWW - love the Fatbirders son ;-)

PS This particular malware is widespread and is delivered by the same software that many sites use to carry their Google Ads!
 
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I think this is little bit late. It cost us £58.00 so will not be rushing back. The stats are totally misleading anyway as the counter only records a percentage of hits to page visits so i think probably not worth the hassle of three hours lost work trying to solve problem
 
I feel sorry for both the owners of the website in question and it's users. The rise of the drive by infection really is the most worrying trend. Often, the owners of the site are not aware that anything is wrong, until their members start letting them know.

These types of attacks can happen to anyone unfortunately.

The best advice I can give is until the site is classed as safe, don't visit it.

In the mean time, if you think your computer is infected, please read this thread HERE and post the requested log files once done.
 
To reply too twildmedia1 on behalf of Fatbirder... As soon as they were first alerted to the problem Fatbirder went to work to find the problem - at a great deal more cost than £58! This was an attack through an adserver - a third party piece of kit - a particularly stupid and vicious bit of very complex malware. Fatbirder replied to ALL those individuals from whom he recieved mails about the problem. While this is all very unfortunate and took a deal of effort to resolve there is a greater lesson... ALL internet users should be running up to date anti malware software... and a quality browser - which cost around £30 a year for a subscription (many are free). To re-iterate Google didn't bother to inform any of the website owners of the problem so thanks are due to alert Birding Top 1000 and Fatbirder members.
 
Rest assured normal service will shortly be resumed! Fatbirder wishes to thank all those people who let him know about the problem and gave their support against this abuse of the WWW - love the Fatbirders son ;-)

Thanks! I wasn't even sure if I should post it, since I didn't know if this was a 'Middle East joke' again or whatnot.

Glad it could be solved! :t:

PS This particular malware is widespread and is delivered by the same software that many sites use to carry their Google Ads!

You mean, google would give a Site warning about a Site containing Malware due to google ads?
Ain't that ironic ;)
 
I still got the malware warning on Google Chrome this morning on a site that had the Fatbirder counter - as well as the African Bird Club website.

If I understand you correct Ashley, this warning is now just because Google haven't reviewed the site again?
 
@Marcel - My machine seems to have survived too. Am scanning right now, but so far so good.
I really didn't take it that serious.... *bbrr.......*



I am glad too when Fatbirder is back.
I like the little Top 1000 tool AND I love the Info they provide.
 
@Marcel
Do you still have the Fatbirder widget on your blog?
Can't access it - Malware alarm.... :(

I could access my blog right away, after removing the widget the warning was gone.
 
I am amazed that we did not receive a email advising of the problem from fatbirder and cannot understand why they didn't take down there sites. It may have been fixed at their end but the malware attached itself to widget so does that mean 100's of sites will still be affected.

We are protected but malware was a direct download from widget so impossible to stop as once clicked it was too late.

I could not obtain telephone number for fatbirder and was not prepared to visit their site at risk of more damage

It would be nice to at least have an apology


www.robwilsonphotos.co.uk
 
Thanks for reminding me Nicole - totally forgot I still had that widget there. I've removed it now and it seems fine.
 
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