Malware warnings plague conservative sites (again); Ad service blamed

https://twitter.com/LilMissRightie/status/300350790906810368

Using google chrome and going to http://t.co/48RvxU7X gives me a warning about malware = "http://t.co/AdWMgkGA"

— Lee (@lhphotog) February 9, 2013

@AceofSpadesHQ Chrome is blocking your blog. pic.twitter.com/7PEHqj2k

— Arthur Kimes (@ComradeArthur) February 9, 2013

Yes, many people are again seeing the same malware warning in Chrome they noticed back in December when visiting the Daily Caller. If you’re seeing it on primarily conservative sites, it might be because those are the sites you’re trying to visit. The San José Mercury News reports that even YouTube was blocked for many Chrome users, even though Google owns both the browser and the video service. The problem seems to stem not from the content of the site but rather from the server providing the advertising.

The errors are similar to the experience of many Chrome users earlier in the week, when error warnings spread wide Monday morning after a Silicon Valley advertising-services company’s website was hacked with malware.

In the earlier case, Santa Clara-based Netseer’s corporate website was infected, which caused Chrome to block it; however, the company’s ad-serving infrastructure and corporate website used the same domain, so any ad served by Netseer caused Chrome to block the page.

This tweet from Feb. 4 was prescient:

https://twitter.com/AlexJamesFitz/status/298461919017308160