Two of Australia’s largest news web sites managed by Fairfax Digital are being blocked by a leading security software package. Attempts to access the sites are met with a message that describes them as suspicious and suspected phishing web sites.
A brand new security program from Symantec is blocking two of Australia’s largest newspapers the Age in Melbourne and the Sydney Morning Herald. The program is not blocking News Ltd web sites. Norton 360 which was launched last month stops consumers from accessing the two sites because of malicious software which is believed to be linked to advertising pop ups being by Fairfax Digital across their sites.
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A warning in the message reccomends that consumers do not visit these two sites.A spokesperson at Symantec said “Our software is very thorough and if malicious code is being served by a site it will instantly alert the consumer while also giving them an option to proceed.”
After being alerted to the problem by a SmartHouse reader SHN tested the software and instantly we were blocked from accessing both Fairfax web sites.
Withing seconds of typing in the URL for the two sites a huge red circle with a cross on it appears. Alongside is a warning message that says “This web page is a suspected phishing web site. The page has been blocked from downloading”. The message goes onto say that the sites contain suspicious content.
However when we forced the software to let us access the two sites we were prompted to allow pop ups to be served.
Recent research seen by SmartHouse reveal that most consumers do not like splash advertising or pop up marketing as served by Fairfax publications. Instead consumers are choosing to block specific advertising that interferes with the reading of content on web sites.
A spokesperson for Fairfax Digital was not available to comment.
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