Online news portal IOL refutes hack claims

Well known South African news portal IOL has not been hacked, says its editor Alastair Otter.

People visiting the site were today greeted with a message from Google warning them that the site contains malware and that their “computer might catch a virus” if they continued on to the site.

Speculation that the site may have been hacked was more than likely sparked by the second paragraph of the warning, which reads:

Google has found malicious software may be installed onto your computer if you proceed. If you’ve visited this site in the past or you trust this site, it’s possible that it has just recently been compromised by a hacker. You should not proceed, and perhaps try again tomorrow or go somewhere else.

In an official statement Otter says iOL has already been in communication with Google and reckons that third-party content may have been to blame. He adds that the organisation is removing any suspicious third-party content.

Once the content is removed, Google will have to reevaluate the site before it goes live again. Memeburn managed to get unhindered access to the site from some versions of Firefox, while others showed a similar warning to the one that appears on Chrome.