Blog Owners, Logging In To Blogger, Receiving Malware Warnings

We've been seeing a few problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from blog owners seeing malware warnings for unknown blogs or websites.

I get a warning from Google Chrome, when I login to Blogger.

Content from www.unknownblog.com, a known malware distributor, has been inserted into this web page. Visiting this page now is very likely to infect your computer with malware.

We know that our blogs are subject to malware and spam classification - but now we see that we can also get warnings for other blogs and websites, that we don't own.

A blog owner, seeing this warning when logging in, will probably find the source of the problem in the Reading List, where content from other people's blogs is routinely found. In some cases, the problem will be in blogs that are intentionally Followed, and blatantly contain malware - and in other cases, blogs that are intentionally Followed may be redirecting the post feed, in a vain attempt to extend their reader base.

In either case, the only solution is to identify the problem blog or website, by examining each individual Reading List entry, one by one, until the noted blog or website is found - then discontinue Following the problem blog or website.

One mysterious scenario can involve blogs using favicons which are detected as malicious, by image scanning malware protection - or which are hosted from a domain which is known for malicious activity. Favicons, tiny icons which represent a blog or website, are used to decorate blog headers and feed gadgets, and are sometimes served by third party services. A "malicious" favicon may be found on entries in the Reading List, or on entries in a bloglist, which will then affect our readers ability to view our blogs.

The bottom line here is that we are responsible for the content of the blogs and websites which we link to from our blogs - and which we Follow - as well as the content on our own blogs.

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