Comments on: Google + StopBadware.org = Internet Gestapo? http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/ Web site news, hot topics, and other fascinating tidbits. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:40:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Gecko http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11281 Gecko Fri, 16 May 2008 08:39:25 +0000 http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11281 I have disabled 'Tell me if the site is a suspected Attack site' in my Security options in FireFox just because of Badware.org! A reputable site run by one of the major blue chip companies that I regularly visit is suddenly on their list. Their latest Message displayed on the site does not even give me the option to ignore their message and visit the site if I choose to. It simply lists 2 options : 'Get me Out of here' and 'Why was this site blocked'. (more or less...) Badware.org can go to hell! I did not ask for their help, nor do I need it. Ridiculous!!!!! I have disabled ‘Tell me if the site is a suspected Attack site’ in my Security options in FireFox just because of Badware.org!
A reputable site run by one of the major blue chip companies that I regularly visit is suddenly on their list.
Their latest Message displayed on the site does not even give me the option to ignore their message and visit the site if I choose to. It simply lists 2 options : ‘Get me Out of here’ and ‘Why was this site blocked’. (more or less… ;)
Badware.org can go to hell! I did not ask for their help, nor do I need it.
Ridiculous!!!!!

]]> By: misterpoll http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11279 misterpoll Wed, 14 May 2008 16:19:38 +0000 http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11279 <b>Ted</b>: Hah, I love the Mom / Dad analogy. Too true. Wow, it's sad to see that over a year later, nothing much has changed with this Google / SBW situation. After my situation was resolved, I did get a couple of emails from Google, asking me what suggestions I had for improving things. My primary comment was that the site owners need to be contacted immediately, preferably *before* any kind of a block is activated. I guess they either didn't agree or couldn't figure out a workable solution for that. Given the brain power in residence at Google, I find the latter hard to believe. Ted: Hah, I love the Mom / Dad analogy. Too true.

Wow, it’s sad to see that over a year later, nothing much has changed with this Google / SBW situation. After my situation was resolved, I did get a couple of emails from Google, asking me what suggestions I had for improving things. My primary comment was that the site owners need to be contacted immediately, preferably *before* any kind of a block is activated. I guess they either didn’t agree or couldn’t figure out a workable solution for that. Given the brain power in residence at Google, I find the latter hard to believe.

]]> By: Ted http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11276 Ted Sat, 10 May 2008 14:14:35 +0000 http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11276 I gotta love the circular logic here. According to SBW the warning came from Google. According to Google, it came from SBW. After going through every damn comment on a three year old blog, plus the first year of posts, I found two suspect iframes (probably from WP 1.5 era) and a whole mess of legitimate iframes from Amazon.co.jp I finally submitted everything and Google sez "Check back later to see if you are pure enough to be on the Intarweb" Classic version of Dad: "Go ask your mother" Mom "Ask your father" type evasion operating here. I've now spent my entire Saturday evening trying to get this crap sorted out so that the tech newbies who read our blog don't get scared out of their pants when they go online. I've got another blog on pre- 2.3.3 version also with K2 that has no trouble from SBW or Google. Make slittle sense, but for the poster above who thought it was K", I don't think so. This whole thing stinks of scare-tactics scam. How many people will just give up and go to Blogger where Google gets all the ads without paying anybody? Oh, and WP not having anything on their front page about SBW is just appalling. 2.3.3 was a big goof it seems like. Come to the walled garden of wordpress.com or blogger and stopbadware will be like a bad dream. I think that is what is going on here. How about a little more transparency from SBW? I gotta love the circular logic here.

According to SBW the warning came from Google.
According to Google, it came from SBW.

After going through every damn comment on a three year old blog, plus the first year of posts, I found two suspect iframes (probably from WP 1.5 era) and a whole mess of legitimate iframes from Amazon.co.jp

I finally submitted everything and Google sez “Check back later to see if you are pure enough to be on the Intarweb”

Classic version of Dad: “Go ask your mother” Mom “Ask your father” type evasion operating here.

I’ve now spent my entire Saturday evening trying to get this crap sorted out so that the tech newbies who read our blog don’t get scared out of their pants when they go online.

I’ve got another blog on pre- 2.3.3 version also with K2 that has no trouble from SBW or Google. Make slittle sense, but for the poster above who thought it was K”, I don’t think so.

This whole thing stinks of scare-tactics scam. How many people will just give up and go to Blogger where Google gets all the ads without paying anybody? Oh, and WP not having anything on their front page about SBW is just appalling. 2.3.3 was a big goof it seems like. Come to the walled garden of wordpress.com or blogger and stopbadware will be like a bad dream. I think that is what is going on here.

How about a little more transparency from SBW?

]]> By: matt http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11275 matt Tue, 06 May 2008 23:58:48 +0000 http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11275 Does anyone know how to go around this? Sometimes you can get by just by clicking refresh, but others you cant. Google used to have a thing on their own security allowing you to "proceed at your own risk" but this contains no such option, which should be mandatory on a non-user controlled security force. I have also noticed the repeated flagging of torrent sites. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the RIAA's work. Does anyone know how to go around this? Sometimes you can get by just by clicking refresh, but others you cant. Google used to have a thing on their own security allowing you to “proceed at your own risk” but this contains no such option, which should be mandatory on a non-user controlled security force.

I have also noticed the repeated flagging of torrent sites. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the RIAA’s work.

]]> By: misterpoll http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11237 misterpoll Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:10:59 +0000 http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11237 <b>FruityOaty</b>: Hey, I'm glad you got to the root of your problem. At least it seems like you did. You can never be certain what exactly Google / StopBadware.org flagged you for, since they don't communicate it to you in any way. I hope they listen to your appeal and lift the warning for your site. Good luck! Incidentally, it was not my WordPress blog that was flagged by Google / StopBadware. It was our actual <a href="http://www.misterpoll.com/" rel="nofollow">misterpoll.com</a> web site. So, at least in my case, it definitely wasn't due to the K2 theme. I think that is a red herring. FruityOaty: Hey, I’m glad you got to the root of your problem. At least it seems like you did. You can never be certain what exactly Google / StopBadware.org flagged you for, since they don’t communicate it to you in any way. I hope they listen to your appeal and lift the warning for your site. Good luck!

Incidentally, it was not my WordPress blog that was flagged by Google / StopBadware. It was our actual misterpoll.com web site. So, at least in my case, it definitely wasn’t due to the K2 theme. I think that is a red herring.

]]> By: FruityOaty http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11226 FruityOaty Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:01:54 +0000 http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11226 OK, I was too quick to blame it on K2. Not the culprit in my case. I found some suspiscious code... long string of garbage letters script. Upon reading the help docs on StopBadware.org and following links here and there for info... I found out that "garbage letters" in script tends to mean obfuscated code... which probably means my site got hacked. Anyway, to make long story short, an iframe looks like got inserted into my WordPress install. I was still at 2.3.2 and apparently this vulnerability was fixed in 2.3.3. Anyway, I did a brand new install of WP... rechecked source code in browser... and that strange script (I suspect it was trying to redirect to another site) disappeared. Dumb me... uggh, should've updated to latest WP. Now, I just have to wait for Google Gestapo to make a verdict. Sigh. OK, I was too quick to blame it on K2. Not the culprit in my case. I found some suspiscious code… long string of garbage letters script. Upon reading the help docs on StopBadware.org and following links here and there for info… I found out that “garbage letters” in script tends to mean obfuscated code… which probably means my site got hacked. Anyway, to make long story short, an iframe looks like got inserted into my WordPress install. I was still at 2.3.2 and apparently this vulnerability was fixed in 2.3.3. Anyway, I did a brand new install of WP… rechecked source code in browser… and that strange script (I suspect it was trying to redirect to another site) disappeared. Dumb me… uggh, should’ve updated to latest WP.

Now, I just have to wait for Google Gestapo to make a verdict. Sigh.

]]> By: FruityOaty http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11223 FruityOaty Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:27:55 +0000 http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11223 And as the Anthony said... you're also using the K2 theme. Suspicious. Gotta go check all my plugins now, but I don't use that many. Google sucks. Thanks for the info. I will file appeal. And as the Anthony said… you’re also using the K2 theme. Suspicious. Gotta go check all my plugins now, but I don’t use that many.

Google sucks. Thanks for the info. I will file appeal.

]]> By: FruityOaty http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11222 FruityOaty Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:24:39 +0000 http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-11222 OMG, I'm not sure... but I think the commenter above "Anthony" is correct... I think there's something in the K2 theme that gets flagged as badware. I recently updated both my sites to K2 theme 2 weeks ago, and yesterday... they both got flagged by Google as badware. It's a bloody nightmare... I don't know what to do now. Someone told me that everytime they load my homepage in IE, they get message that ActiveX control is trying to load: Shell WebView & Control Library... which never used to appear until I updated to K2 theme. But I'm unable to reproduce this... I don't see it. OMG, I’m not sure… but I think the commenter above “Anthony” is correct… I think there’s something in the K2 theme that gets flagged as badware. I recently updated both my sites to K2 theme 2 weeks ago, and yesterday… they both got flagged by Google as badware.

It’s a bloody nightmare… I don’t know what to do now.

Someone told me that everytime they load my homepage in IE, they get message that ActiveX control is trying to load: Shell WebView & Control Library… which never used to appear until I updated to K2 theme. But I’m unable to reproduce this… I don’t see it.

]]> By: anthony http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-10669 anthony Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:29:32 +0000 http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-10669 hi, i am going nuts here. I think it has something to do with the K2 theme actually. I 1st saw the error on my site, umannart.com , worpress / k2 based site - nothing odd there at all and I am sure the code is safe. A friend of mine whose site I setup is having the same problem, avantikumar.com , another k2 site. then i search for stopbadware and i come up with this page, another k2 site.. coincidence? is there something in the k2 theme that is getting sites flagged by stopbadware? hi, i am going nuts here. I think it has something to do with the K2 theme actually. I 1st saw the error on my site, umannart.com , worpress / k2 based site - nothing odd there at all and I am sure the code is safe. A friend of mine whose site I setup is having the same problem, avantikumar.com , another k2 site.

then i search for stopbadware and i come up with this page, another k2 site.. coincidence?

is there something in the k2 theme that is getting sites flagged by stopbadware?

]]> By: Luke http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-8664 Luke Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:57:30 +0000 http://misterpoll.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/google-stopbadwareorg-internet-gestapo/#comment-8664 My website was also a victim of this BS. Although they were right and my site had been hacked, all they had to do was send me an email and I'd have fixed it. Ass-hats. My website was also a victim of this BS. Although they were right and my site had been hacked, all they had to do was send me an email and I’d have fixed it. Ass-hats.

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