back to article Google slaps malware warning on Radio 3 website

Google is warning surfers visiting BBC Radio 3's website that the classical music domain is a security risk. The malware threat appears to have been purged by Thursday afternoon but Google warning will not be removed until it has had a chance to re-scan the site and verify that it is clean. The bbc.co.uk/radio3 site was …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google

    What exactly is Google's track record in the anti-malware stakes? Where does their expertise lie?

    The answers to those two questions are; none existant; and advertising. So why would anybody trust them on malware in the first place?

    Stick to what you're good at guys and I can continue ignoring you.

    1. Tigra 07
      Thumb Up

      False positive or a real threat?

      If they did get a false positive, then it's still better than not getting a detection at all and infecting lots of people

      Why would a radio station need a website anyway?

      If you can see what's on the radio, then isn't it actually a TV?

      1. Northumbrian

        "Why would a radio station need a website anyway?"

        "Why would a radio station need a website anyway?"

        Presumably this is obvious, but this is Radio 3 in the UK.

        [1] It plays all sorts of stuff in long chunks to schedule. This means that people like to be able to look up what going to be played, or when a discussion programme is due.

        [2] When it has a snippets programme, people often use the website to check the playlist . I set my mother's browser up to have the R3 playlist on the bookmark toolbar, and she used to impress her friends (she's in her 70s) by being able to fire up the computer, press a button and tell them exactly which Bruckner symphony they were listening to. (With Bruckner you need to be told - they all sound the same.)

        [3] It's the website through which you can get to the Radio 3 iPlayer, to catch up on the late night prom you missed, (which was actually why I got a call from my mother saying - what's all this warning about).

        [4] There are also things like extra programme notes for the concerts, the complete schedule for the Proms links to other resources.

        Does that answer your question?

  2. Wize

    They the same false call on another website I visit.

    And its a pig to turn off. Yep, I know you think this site is a risk, but if I click OK once, stop telling me about it on every page I visit on there.

  3. Conrad Longmore
    Stop

    It could be an ad

    Remember that many BBC pages carry advertising if you visit them from outside the UK, infected banner ads are a common source of infection.

    I do tend to trust Google's malware warning, this one is very specific and does link back to a known black hat network.

    1. Blitterbug

      I agree with Conrad

      ... but not having a US proxy to test it on, I can't tell, but it seems likely, and explains why UK-based tests fail to spot anything wrong. But why would the BBC carry advertising in any event, even for overseas visitors?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      No it isn't

      Coming from a UK netblock from home, it does it, hittoing the bbc.co.uk servers without the commercial page furniture.

      (People who want to see the difference can turn on "turbo mode" in opera, which makes you like like An Foreign[tm])

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Over Protective.

    A friends site got an infected ad in about 2006, Google STILL insist the site is not safe.

    Note that ONE ad FOUR years ago; there have been no reports since, yet Google STILL block the site.

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      You need to log into Google to get it cleared.

      My own site got attacked at the beginning of last year - some SQL problem (I think) on one of the shared hosts splattered iframe garbage all over the hosted sites on that machine. Not my fault, but took me down.

      I deleted all the HTML/PHP/JS, waited a week (for the rest of the server to be tidied and holes patched), uploaded from backups, logged into Google as a web admin, dropped a specific file into my website root to show I had full access to the site. Requested a re-evaluation of my site.

      Two days later, the warning was gone.

      :

      Bootnote: Kinda amusing that a site appears to have been nobbled for years thanks to a tainted advert. There could be a warning here about the value of third party advertising and was the greed (how much do NORMAL people get paid for allowing this junk in their site?) worth it in the end?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    That's Brahms and Liszt

    [puts away red pen]

  6. Deadly_NZ

    And

    you trust Google Why??

  7. carrynot
    WTF?

    Censorship??

    Hmm!! Curioius, can't go the bbc radio 3 website with firefox but works fine when using Chrome, has it got built in protection?

  8. LinkOfHyrule
    Joke

    oh my

    Oh my, all two of their listeners will be horrified! Oh, Sorry, I forgot, only 50% of their audience uses the internet, and it was him who discovered it!

    I'm joking! Calm down! They actually have three listeners as I sometimes tune in when I can't sleep! That's why its called Radio "Three" you know!

    Quite a lot of exclamation marks in this post isint there!

  9. fords
    Happy

    Must be a Firefox thing...

    ...cos it works fine in Opera.

  10. VennData

    They must be sick of listening to Brahms' Third Racket

    It's Brahms!.... Brahms' Third Racket

  11. Andrew 63
    FAIL

    Chrome is...

    ... giving me the block notice too.

  12. David Shaw
    Coat

    I'm in EU and google warns me!

    Quote/ Google Reported Attack Diagnostic page for bbc.co.uk/radio3 at 15h33 BST on Thursday

    What is the current listing status for bbc.co.uk/radio3?

    Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this website may harm your computer.

    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 15 pages that we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 4 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time that Google visited this site was on 2010-09-09, and the last time that suspicious content was found on this site was on 2010-09-09.

    /Unquote

    My quick & dirty analysis of bbc.co.uk/radio3 is that content was aimed at me by BBC.co.uk and BBCimg.co.uk

    and by REVSCI.net and by QUANTSERVE.com and by SCORECARDRESEARCH.com.

    Now I wonder which of the 5 content servers is compromised?

    REVSCI.net is "audience Science"

    QUANTSERVE.com is "ad impressions" <------I guess BADverts come from here!???

    SCORECARDRESEARCH.com is 'Market Research"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      doesn't matter....

      I block all three of them...

  13. Toastan Buttar

    Mahlerware

    Must be because they push so much Mahlerware.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ad nanner?

    So if it's an ad banner that's causing the problem why isn't this Google "service" capable of blocking the ad banner rather than the whole page. Oh, that's right, because it's Google and therefore shit.

    Or to look at it another way could it be that Google will block an entire site which carries infected ads for as long as possible if those ads aren't Google sourced. Bet it doesn't happen with Google sourced ads.

  15. Tigra 07
    Badgers

    Working as a team without anyone noticing?

    This is getting really interesting as Microsoft are taking down botnets for a living and Google are sweeping up attack sites to protect more people from becoming botnets.

    When is apple going to get involved?

  16. Bill 2

    another one on working mums

    www.workingmums.co.uk also has a malware warning on google. Maybe they're the wrong kind of working mums or working mums "gone bad"?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    It was an annoyance ...

    because all other browsers (Opera, Firefox, Epiphany, Safari, etc) were quite happy but Chrom(ium) resolutely refused to have anything to do with Radio 3.

    OK. That's one less browser to worry about, then. Pity, because I quite liked its minimalism, speed and standards compliance.

    I see it has now (just as arbitrarily) decided to go to Radio 3 but its too late. Damage done. Bye bye Chrome. This sort of social engineering in software disgusts me.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All forums/blogs are now vulnerable to troll takedowns

    Just post an image from any of the supposedly malware ridden sites and you get blacklisted immediately. I went through this the other night and the "malware" was a picture of Harry from Harry and the Hendersons.

    as if there aren't enough ways for cranks to get their jollies or users to get panicked.

    ffs!

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