Author Topic: CosmoQuest security warning  (Read 4889 times)

Offline Kiwi

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CosmoQuest security warning
« on: October 24, 2013, 06:44:23 AM »
I got the following warning today when I tried to access the CosmoQuest forum.

Quote
Website Blocked by Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security

Dangerous Page

Address: http://cosmoquest.org/forum/forum.php

Trend Micro has confirmed that this website can transmit malicious software or has been involved in online scams or fraud.

Has anyone heard of anything similar?

I had a hard disk crash soon after going to CosmoQuest in August, but just thought it a coincidence.  My repair shop wasn't sure whether or not the crash was caused by malicious software.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2013, 06:51:48 AM by Kiwi »
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Offline LunarOrbit

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Re: CosmoQuest security warning
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2013, 07:41:55 AM »
I just performed two different scans for malware and the site came up clean:

http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/results/cosmoquest.org/forum/forum.php
http://app.webinspector.com/public/reports/18028551

It's possible the malware is only downloaded when you're logged in though, and those scanners wouldn't be able to detect that since they can't login.
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Offline ChrLz

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Re: CosmoQuest security warning
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2013, 07:54:31 AM »
There been trouble at ranch lately, see:
http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php?146419-My-Anti-virus-Went-Off-When-I-Prepared-To-Log-in
It appears they may have been briefly compromised, are probably now clean but various av vendors will remember the incident for quite a while and offer warnings.  I'm not sure if all/any of that means you should be concerned.. but I'd have to observe that reading that thread and seeing how it has been dealt with doesn't exactly fill me with confidence in the admins of their system.

Then again I have a known anti Cosmo-bias, so perhaps take my words with a dose of salts.

Wait, did I just mix up my metaphors..?

Offline gillianren

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Re: CosmoQuest security warning
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2013, 12:00:38 PM »
I'm contemplating applying for the forum liaison position, but how much they want the job to coincide with fundraising bothers me, given that they did say that the reason they were taking over was how much funding the new people had.  I'd think the whole thing was a scam, if I could figure out what they'd get out of it.
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Offline Sus_pilot

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Re: CosmoQuest security warning
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2013, 01:30:14 PM »
I'm glad that I read the thread at Comquest.  I use AVG pro on my computers and thought I was well protected.  After reading that thread, I installed Malwarebytes and it found 54 malicious software installations - mostly variations of "I Want This".