The cyber attack that caused a Google warning to block access to the Source last week was widespread and even included a site operated by the BBC.
On Sept. 9, Webuser.com reported, "Google has flagged the homepage of BBC Radio 3 as suspicious, showing a ‘this web site may harm your computer’ message in its search results."
As with the Source, initial diagnostic tests for harmful viruses run by the site developers turned up clean. Source developers at Openflows worked throughout the day and night Thursday checking the site for viruses and any other suspicious bugs.
They found that "the ad server software had been compromised by a remote exploit and that was used to insert malicious code into some ads that were being displayed on the sites."
The malicious code, designed to download unknown software, was attached to some of the ads being served on the V.I. Source sites, so only a portion of the pages would have been affected, according to Openflows Director Eric Goldhagen, so only a portion of the pages would have been affected.
The percentage of users actually in danger was low, but because it is possible that users using Windows and no virus alert software could have been impacted by some as-of-yet-unspecified virus, those users should run a scan on their machines (both Microsoft and ClamWin have free tools at these links).
Mac and Linux operating systems were not affected.
"We have complete confidence in our developers at Openflows," said Shaun A. Pennington, Source publisher. "We are well protected."
Pennington added that she was glad to learn it was widespread and not targeted at the Source.
"There are those in the community that would like to see us go away," she said. "The exploit that was used has been patched, the sites are fully secure, Pennington said, "And we will keep a close eye on things to make sure they stay that way."
Google took several hours to rescan the sites and remove the warning.
Goldhagen said though he was upset that this situation occurred at all, he was happy that he and his staff were able to find the problem and remove it quickly.
"Yesterday, one of the primary sites for the BBC fell victim to the same attack, and while I’m still embarrassed about the fact that it happened to the Source, I feel good that we resolved the issue in the same, if not less, time than they did," Goldhagen said in an email Friday night.
