Friday, December 28, 2007

Is The American Spectator Distributing Malicious Software?


The American Spectator is a well-known Conservative magazine. It's online version can be found here. But be careful! If you do a Google search for it, you get the warning visible in the screen-cap above: "This site may harm your computer", and Google will refuse to link directly to the page. Google's explanation:

This warning message appears with search results we've identified as sites that may install malicious software on your computer...

Of course, some think the warning is a Google conspiracy to crush Conservative websites. Others suggest that such sites have been hacked by the Russians (wouldn't that be ironic?).
I personally have no idea but visit spectator.org and you may be endangering your computer as well as your intelligence!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's weird. MacAfee SiteAdvisor shows the site is safe.

Maybe there is something to the Google conspiracy....

Oldschool said...

Could be its George spying on your illegal activities . . . lol!!
More than likely its the fault of a broken-down microsoft type computer.

Mike said...

Actually it means they sell ad space to third-party ad services that install spy-ware and adware on your computer, and possibly much worse (Trojans, bots etc).

It also may indicate they are hacked.

Google bases their rating on reports from legitimate security researchers, the public and from testing the site itself - they download and reverse engineer malware from the site.

Now that doesn't mean the people that run the American Spectator are doing this, but that they have piss poor vetting for their advertising and perhaps poor handling of the display of their user supplied content.

There is a nice form they can fill out if they think Google is in error. Its still like this after 8 hours so maybe they are a bit slow.

"That's weird. MacAfee SiteAdvisor shows the site is safe."

MacAfee isn't exactly known for their accuracy in malware detection, at least by those of us in the business...

"More than likely its the fault of a broken-down microsoft type computer."

You really have no idea what you are talking about, do you oldschool?

Ti-Guy said...

There is a nice form they can fill out if they think Google is in error.

I noticed, in that whole discussion over at Newsbusters (itself, a site of dubious credibility), that no one seemed particularly interested in asking Google what the deal was. Instead they were focussed on some nefarious plot to stamp out conservatism (a laudable goal, but one that hardly requires subterfuge, as current conservatism is largely self-incriminating).

And they call the rest of us conspiracy thinkers.

Anonymous said...

Well, I just clicked on to The American Spectator and enjoyed an excellent article by Patrick J. Michaels who co-authored a study with Ross McKittrick indicating that IPCC global temperature records are, er, a load of hot air, or words to that effect. So far I do not appear to be glowing in the dark or anything like that so why don't you try it yourselves:

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12492
David Duff

PS: I sign thus and use my site name above because I object to Blogger/Google refusing to provide links to visitors from other ISPs.

Anonymous said...

Oops, apologies to Blogger, I now see that they have changed the signature arrangements at the bottom, so obviously my campaign has been successful. Let's hear it for the little guy!

bigcitylib said...

David,

Why is it you U.K. nutters are so much more charming than the American kind?

Anonymous said...

And they call the rest of us conspiracy thinkers.

Calling you left bots "thinkers" of any sort? Even those broken clocks are right twice a day. Any other rational person or group would rather rightfully call you moron.

Anonymous said...

Well, 'BCL', my charm has been known to slip if and when anyone pokes me in the eye with a sharp stick, but by and large I would rather converse with people than shout at them, not least because when everyone is shouting no-one is listening, which rather obviates the aim of the exercise.

Of course your description of me as a "nutter" is an example of a theory based on nil evidence, a practive beloved of certain climatologists, I am led to believe!

Er, have a nice day! (I think that is a fairly authentic example of American charm.)

Anonymous said...

Mike, I am in the business....

cheers!