Trading Standards taken down by “malware”

LONDON - June 7, 2013 - PRLog -- It’s so far unclear whether the website was actually infected with malware, but the website was marked as containing malware by Google and a large red warning sign blocked access for many users.

Sitemorse – whose sophisticated monitoring software warns clients in minutes if their sites have similar problems - found the website was being blocked by Google when accessed in the popular Firefox and Chrome browsers, though other browsers were not necessarily affected.

Lawrence Shaw, Sitemorse CEO, said while the block was potentially embarrassing for the Trading Standards Institute (TSi), the local authority regulatory service, links to malware and “phishing” sites were a new and unmeasured hazard for websites in both the public and private sectors.Users attempting to access the careers section of the website encountered similar warnings, again mentioning Google.“We have repeatedly warned against these problems, and warned in our blog the threat to businesses from cyber-criminals using sophisticated, advanced 'malware' is increasing. And that means a very real problem for web managers.” He added.

A number of recent reports say criminals are targeting businesses once every three minutes with advanced malware capable of avoiding detection from traditional tools such as firewalls and anti-virus software.

‘Spear phishing' - a technique that looks to dupe its victims into downloading malware by sending messages using common business terms designed to entice them to click on a malicious email file attachment or web link,  remains the most common attack strategy for getting malware into an enterprise.

“Of course, no web manager would knowingly link to malware, but links do change and issues can arise with links within a site that is not regularly checked. Although issues such as the one affecting the Trading Standards Institute are normally spotted and fixed quickly, suppose the warnings are on a page buried deep inside the site, perhaps in a transactional area?  Users are more likely to go elsewhere, and warn their friends about the apparent risk than complain to the site owners“added Shaw.

About Sitemorse

Sitemorse has provided web governance services to both public and private sector organisations for the last decade, enabling site operators to have confidence in the quality of their sites. We also use our powerful software engine to accurately benchmark websites in all major sectors against key criteria such as function, performance, code quality and accessibility, in order to show which websites work most efficiently for their users. Our services such as Governisation and the Web Management Toolkit are used by many large organisations, such as HMRC and the Met Office, to monitor, and control their large presence on the web.

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For further Information:  Geoff Paddock, Head of Communications on +44 20 7183 5588, gpaddock@Sitemorse.com