AVG Anti Virus warning whilst accessing ATS thread

Hi, I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, I wasn't sure specifically how to raise this issue, but...

Whilst trying to access the thread entitled "77 = No Hijack, Flight Deck Door Closed for Entire Flight" in the 9/11 conspiracies area, my anti-virus software (AVG) immediately flagged up a warning. (see screenshot below)

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f477cdf88659.jpg[/atsimg]

The warning says:

"DANGER: AVG Search-Shield has detected active threats on this page and has blocked access for your protection.

The page you are trying to access has been identified as a known exploit, phishing, or social engineering web site and therefore has been blocked for your safety. Without protection, such as that in the AVG Security Toolbar and AVG, your computer is at risk of being compromised, corrupted or having your identity stolen. Please follow one of the
suggestions below to continue.

URL: sprigs-irons.net/
Name: Javascript Obfuscation (type 714)"

I did not have ANY other programs running, or ANY other browser or web pages open at the time.

Just thought that I should let you guys know!

Thanks,
G

[edit on 27-11-2009 by Gordi The Drummer]

I get these too, I think its an add with sound scripts...
Not sure though, it comes and goes almost like it follows certain members and not the site in general.

if you would send all information using the complain/suggestion link in your U2U page, members of staff will look into it to determine the issue and verify the dangers.

Hope this helps

I use AVG and I got this when I used Internet Explorer but not when I use Google chrome. I do notice pop ups being block from time to time. Does ATS have occasional pop up adds that could cause this?

I get or did get a lot of warnings with AVG....I tended to ignore and enter anyway. Switched to Avira but have not attempted to access site with it.
Must add, I had free issue AVG and after a while it always put stuff in my laptop to get me to buy full package....My thought that is

I get MANY warnings and also redirections on pages I'm not looking at.

I'll open tabs and close them as I read them and at least twice a day, I'm redirected to some sales site by the time I open the tab.

This has only happened recently, once ATS turned into one big commercial.

It's time to find a new forum, one that doesn't sell out it's members for pop-ups and redirections.

Putting a couple banners is one thing, putting pop-ups and redirects is just rude!

Hm. I have avg too (and Firefox, I've been using both for quite a while now) and I've never seen such a warning. Not on ats, not anywhere else.

To check, i just went to that thread where you got the warning and nothing happened.

Must be IE

IE browser sucks and so does its security, keep running it if you like your pc to be a open book for hackers to browse or get FIREFOX. AVG no i would recommend AVAST antivirus i have ran it for almost 7 years and not one single virus it stops everything

Thanks guys for all of the very swift responses!
I shall indeed take all of the advice on board.

I haven't had any previous problems with ATS, or with the AVG software.
It does pick up on unwanted ad/spy cookies, but I've never seen it throw up a threat alert like this before.

Thanks again!

G

reply to post by Gordi The Drummer


this site is safe, your browser is not, and personally i dont trust AVG

I ditched AVG when it upgraded to 9.0+; it became a virus unto itself by spinning my hard-drive caching data without my permission. I now use the awesome Avast anti-virus.

@OP, use Firefox and this. no more intrusions.

reply to post by Gordi The Drummer


I don't suppose you noticed if had an ad for tooth whitening on the page somewhere... Just asking cos Google just recently banned a bunch of advertisers cos they used less than fair techniques (first time Google has banned specific advertisers as ossosed to specific adverts)... And when I saw that ad I was a little surprised - but just assumed that ATS uses another ad service.

Could be an ad was put on a list somewhere.

Just for the record, I got a fake trojan from an ATS thread that was so destructive I ultimatly had to reformat my hard drive.
How do i know for sure it was ATS? There was a poster here touting the "service' to remove the trojan!
IE does suck, I always heed virus warnings. Malware Bytes rules!

The opening poster gave all the necessary info :

URL: sprigs-irons.net/
Name: Javascript Obfuscation (type 714)

If I open that website URL, I get the same warning from AVG Antivirus.
It opens a screen with a text window in it, which tries to sell :
"" top quality custom marine aluminum fabrication in South Florida. ""
It has more text in it, but that's not needed to copy here.
Above that window you read :
"" Future Home of "". No more text outside that window.

This windows Source Code can not be read if I try, since within a second the same AVG warning pops up again.

Seems like a simple failure of a beginning website owner to implement some old JavaScript in his future home page.

To be clear, you will only get this warning when using AVG in IE or FireFox browsers, when the page you visit redirects you via an internal or external Ad-service to this fresh new home page.

But WHY should any Ad-service like the ones ATS uses, redirects you to such a clearly unfinished website?
ATS uses two Ad-servers, to be found at the bottom of most pages :
1. Interactive Advertising Bureau
2. Gorilla Nation

The burning question is of course :
Did the OP got that AVG warning from that Ad, served by one of these two Ad-servers, or from another, stealthy one. Or did he visit this particular site in the same session, and laid this exploit dormant somewhere in his browser from then on?

reply to post by LaBTop


Hi LaBTop,
and Thanks for looking into this.

Further info. on the circumstances:
I had just switched on my laptop and let it boot up as normal.
My AVG anti-virus software started a scheduled scan, but I paused it, as it causes sites like ATS to load and run really slowly on my kit.
I clicked on my IE shortcut which takes me to google homepage.
I chose ATS from the address line drop-down.
When ATS opened, I clicked on the homepage link for this thread.
As the thread page was opening, the AVG alert popped up. It was so quick, I actually thought it was a part of this thread page!
I definitely did not click on any ads or anything.

Nothing else was open or running at the time (apart from AVG and ATS).

Thanks again,
G

So you opened the ATS home page without logging in first?

In that case, you get substantial more Ad's then when logged in, and via a FireFox browser.
The latest FireFox version blocks standard nearly all advertising Ad's in the right portion of all ATS pages!
It's a delight......but probably not for the site owners, who base their site strategy on the income from ads.

Which I don't blame them for, but it will turn out to be a lost battle in the near future for them, FireFox ADD-ON's for blocking annoying advertising are offered in big quantities, and for IE too.

This is a result of decennia of abuse by the huge advertising industry, trying to force down our throats a plethora of useless and even dangerous goods and foods. They quickly learned that overloading any population with endless identical messages will end in the majority of that population to accept as truth that their product is the best offer to grab.
Which it obviously is not in most cases, for the more critically minded under us.
Examples given : McDonalds, Coca Cola, 7-Up, Wall-mart, gas slurping US made cars, cigarettes, useless and dangerous medicines, etcetera.

Keep ALL security updates current...

AVG is just trying to tell you that that there's a trojan there and
you might get a redirect to some 'kaka\\'
or else a Fake Ad page.


i used to use Norton, then went for a freeby in CA by rr...
uninstalled them all in a NY second, for multiple reasons

theres a lot of security stuff lurking on many sites, you just have to keep your security on top of it all. including when going to search engines where there are numberous threats lurking

[edit on 27-11-2009 by St Udio]

Originally posted by LaBTop
Which I don't blame them for, but it will turn out to be a lost battle in the near future for them, FireFox ADD-ON's for blocking annoying advertising are offered in big quantities, and for IE too.

You see I have done quite a lot of these - even masqueraded as a Google bot for a while! - that's actually quite interesting! - any way I've disabled them for 2 reasons, one... Well things like that ghosty wotsit for FF really screwed with the way the page scrolled for the first 5-10 seconds I changed page (and there are quite often little niggley things with other apps like that)...

And 2.. seriously advertising doesn't bother all that much... unless it really gets in my face - I know most of it is messing with my head on some level, but other some times you can get the strangest inspirations and just random mental links for whatever I'm doing - and besides, I'm kinda happy with the status quo, should there be a paradigm shift in the funding of this site and well a huge part of the internet as a whole who can predict how that will end up? - Ad's are a small price to pay if I'm honest - if you block them they will either evolve and become more aggressive - or the good people that work in the internet control room will want to find another way to get paid!

Click an ad every now and then!

edit: I should really re-read before submiting

[edit on 27/11/2009 by Now_Then]

When I visited that thread my webcam turned on. I wonder if there actually is something behind it?

I also use avast, for a free single use software it is amazing, and the protection is better than most if not all of the big names in anti virus, you can down load it here www.avast.com... you need to register and they send a key in an email. :0)