Help please - malware warning

**amber** · 05 February 2012, 12:01 PM

Can anyone on here please advise on the following.

I have recently done a small website for my local Parish Council (free of charge) using Zara Webdesigner 7 Premium and all seemed fine but two members have reported that when they try to access it their computers are flagging it as 'a high risk website with malicious software etc'

I am not getting any such warnings nor are most of the other councillors but as you can imagine they are not too pleased that their parishionners may be getting similar wanings and it has left me rather red faced.

The webite is basic and contains jpeg images, text and click links to pdf copies of minutes and agendas. It has NO external links.

I have recently added it to Google Webtools so I can view stats and as such put their google html link in the <head> which was part of the owner validation process.

Google Webtools shows no malware on the website.

All my photo's and uploaded documents have been virus and spyware checked and all are clean

I do have a problem uploading their minutes and agendas though as they are done in MS Word 2007 and converted to PDF. Whilst I can open them on my PC if link to them with xara web designer premium and click the link I get a message "Your current security settings do not allow this file to be downloaded". Having looked at the PDF properties it states that "This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer"

I have overcome this though by simply opening the PDF and doina a 'save as' and they work fine then throup zara but I though I would mention that incase it was relevant.

Any help at all as to why some people are getting the warning that is is ''a high risk website with malicious software etc' and what I could do to rectify this would be very gratefully received.

For information the website is www.waltonpc.org.uk

Many thanks

**Ramshackle** · 05 February 2012, 12:17 PM

No warnings flagged here when i viewed it - could it be possible that a few of the members have their security settings to high in IE?

**pauland** · 05 February 2012, 12:35 PM

No warnings and I can open all your files (minutes, etc) directly.

Is there any reason you haven't converted the FOI file to PDF?

The parish newsletter link opens the PDF on the same page, which may confuse some people.

Your council members list is an image (jpg - probably could be clearer as a png), which will help protect them from being spammed by email, however, poor Mr Kennedy has his email in plain text, so his email address could be scraped.

**amber** · 05 February 2012, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by Ramshackle

No warnings flagged here when i viewed it - could it be possible that a few of the members have their security settings to high in IE?

Hi thanks for the reply.

That could be a possibility as my IE is not set to max although I do have web checkers, firewall boosters, anti maleware/spyware etc running on mine and I'm having no problems. I shall ask them what their settings are.

I have just spoken to one of the people who got the warning although a little vague as he thinks he had just searched for Walton PC or similar in google and the warning came up. He doesn't think he actually clicked to enter and isn't sure whether he was about to go directly to onw of the documents which was found in it's own right through the search engine. He says he has gone onto the website directly by typing the domain name in full and it was ok then. Clear as mud I know.

I'm hoping to speak to the other chap later too to try and ascertain exactly what he was doing and how/when he got the warning. Hope he is more computer literate than the other one ha ha.

Cheers

**amber** · 05 February 2012, 02:01 PM

Hi thank for your reply too.

No reason for not converting the FOI other than I forgot. I have to get someone else to convert them as I am running Office 2003 and it doesn't have the facility to convert which is a pain although I have now told the council how to do it at their end so hopefully they will just send me PDF's in future and I'll just 'save as' to overcome the security issue.

I'll change the parish newletters link and thanks for pointing that out and also my error in not protecting Mr K's email text.

I did the main members list email and phone numbers as a jpeg on photoshop so they wouldn't get spammed and it is a bit fuzzy you are right. How do I create it as a png ? Sorry if it's a stupid question.

Many thanks

**pauland** · 05 February 2012, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by amber

I have to get someone else to convert them as I am running Office 2003 and it doesn't have the facility to convert which is a pain

I don't bother with office anymore, I just use the free software from http://www.openoffice.org/ - it reads microsoft files and can output directly to PDF.

How do I create it as a png ?

Photoshop can save as a PNG and you can force Xara to use a PNG for the graphic.

I'm not sure why you need Photoshop at all - you can either create a graphic of the text seperately (just create a page with the text in, select and export). Alternatively, if you put a graphic behind the text and group it, Xara will create a graphic for it. It may even do so just by grouping text.

**amber** · 05 February 2012, 05:24 PM

Hi thanks for that.

I'll try doing the graphics the way you suggest in future by grouping or exporting as it sounds a lot quicker.

**gwpriester** · 05 February 2012, 05:59 PM

Xara, Amber. With an X.

Perhaps the Google link in the header has triggered some security software to consider the site malware. There are a lot of different security software solutions out there and they all use different means to determine if a site poses some threat. My wife gets this warning when she visits her favorite website 3 Quarks Daily. She just ignores it.

And of course if Google is providing information about your site (as well as gathering information about your site, it's contents, and its visitors), then I would not expect Google to find anything wrong. Ya know?

**handrawn** · 05 February 2012, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by gwpriester

My wife gets this warning when she visits her favorite website 3 Quarks Daily. She just ignores it.

'And sure... it's all beside the mark'

@amber - false positives [warnings about things that are actually safe] come in all shapes and forms - no system is perfect

**ThomasAnderson** · 02 April 2012, 12:14 PM

Which [link removed by moderator] software are you using...........?
It may possible that some antivirus program gives false alarm because of some suspicious activities.
Use a antivirus like McAfee or Kaspersky to totally protect your PC.