Parish Notice – Indirect Link to Possible Malware

(Image kindly provided by Chris Irvine)

I am grateful to local bloggers Tristan Osborne and Chris Irvine for informing me that there was a link to a "known malware site" (exact wording is in the graphic at right) somewhere on this 'blog.

I couldn't see this at all, so I methodically worked through any links in all my recent posts, and all the way down my (multi-sectioned) blogroll.

It was a useful exercise, and the latter part is one I do periodically anyway, as linked sites are changing, coming (e.g. re-vamped or change their remit) and going all the time.

Some sites are no longer operating, or have been inactive for a very long time, and those I have now removed. A handful of the now-defunct sites have been replaced by what are known as a 'holding page' (to ensure there is something there when one visits, giving an idea of what has happened and frequently offering the now-available sub-domain to a new taker) and it has to have been one of these that contained a link to the 'dodgy' website identified in the above graphic.

It wouldn't have been in any of my 'blog posts anyway, unless a link therein had subsequently been changed, as I am meticulous at checking thos links before including them. Indeed, over the years, there have been a sprinkling of links I haven't included because they looked like they might not stay intact indefinitely.

Anyway, reports coming in have indicated that the issue has now disappeared, so with apologies to anyone who might have encountered that message or any other worrying indications, I can report that it is no longer an issue here. UPDATE: I have now found out which site on my blogroll it was causing this, and that one is among those that have now been removed. As it turned out, there was nothing dodgy there, but presumably there had been in the (recent?) past.