February 12, 2012

Google Redux: Amer. Spectator 'Site May Harm Your Computer'

By Noel Sheppard | June 30, 2008 | 00:18

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The good folks at Google are at it again, for if you do a web search for the conservative magazine "The American Spectator," a disclaimer says:

The American Spectator
This site may harm your computer.
Features opinions, reviews, and an interactive section, as well as archives of the monthly.
www.spectator.org/ - Similar pages - Note this

Click on "The American Spectator" link, and a message reads (h/t Ed Driscoll):

Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!
Suggestions:
Return to the previous page and pick another result.
Try another search to find what you're looking for.
Or you can continue to http://www.spectator.org/ at your own risk. For detailed information about the problems we found, visit Google's Safe Browsing diagnostic page for this site.

If you click on the "Safe Browsing diagnostic page" link, you get the following (h/t NB reader Vic McDonald):

Safe Browsing
Diagnostic page for www.spectator.org/
What is the current listing status for www.spectator.org/?
Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.
What happened when Google visited this site?
Of the 89 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 06/28/2008, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 04/05/2008.
Malicious software is hosted on 2 domain(s), including h25.6600.org, dns5.8866.org.
Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?
Over the past 90 days, www.spectator.org/ did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.
Has this site hosted malware?
No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.
How did this happen?
In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.