Lost!

Well, it was bound to happen. Aparently, on the 15th of June, Google had some type of Malware come across my domain during a crawl. I hadn’t even noticed until a user reported it to me today. Firefox 3 uses this information and pretty much makes using my site a pain in the ass. Every click, on every page, you are shown a warning message. To Google’s credit, they did attempt to notify several generic addresses, but those had been blocked YEARS ago due to spam issues.

The site report for webtekconcepts.com shows 1 “infection” resulting in 2 processes on the host computer. See the report here (until I figure this crap out). Aparently, if you leave off the “www”, I’ve caused 2 infections… (Note: This number has now changed)

So, for the record, it wasn’t I. The only Ads I serve re Google Ads and I maintain a healthy password and access control list on my domain. The only possibility that I can think of is that an Ad came through that had something in it - from Google. I’ve also looked at my logs, my bash history, my files, the dates of what has been edited, etc and see absolutely nothing out of place. So what the heck?

I did a little research before pressing the Magic Button on Google’s site to have them re-crawl my site. Turns out, theres a nice little page that shows everything they look for. If you’re some Joe Blow reading through the list, it sounds all neat and nice. If you’re a web master or someone that deals with a lot of web based content, it might shock you. Know someone that has a blog that you don’t like - too easy to get them listed. Simply link to a malware site in a comment and *poof* - they’re listed. Nice eh?

Oh, and the “Magic Button” to get Google to recrawl the site again states: “I certify that I have removed badware or badware links from my site, according to StopBadware.org’s Security Tips For Websites.” So, without knowing where, who or what it is that I’m linking to - I’m screwed because I allow comments on the website. The security report as just as pointless. It found “something” 1 time in 90 days that got me listed. What the bloody hell Google?

It’s really interesting too, because I recently ran a story about a Bait and Switch website. I figured that this site might be the problem, so I went to it inside Firefox 3 - not a damn thing happened.

At the moment, I’m on TDY (Temporary Duty) in Sicily, so I can’t do much. When I get back (Wed), I’ll be updating WordPress, Re-themeing and breaking a heck of a lot of old stories because I’m doing a serious amount of housecleaning on the domain. …And no - Sicily is not fun, it’s HOT, I’d rather be in Germany, thank you!

Oh - I should be releasing some stories about a new server, SharePoint and Alfresco here pretty soon. If only I could get Windows 2008 and Virtual Machine to play nice ;-)

I’m being my normal self and am working on a personal project to “be my own boss”. Translation: I’m coding a web application for one of my 20 or so domain names.

In the past when working on a web application, I would either write an authentication scheme or borrow from an Open Source project like PHP User Class, but this time, I think I”m going to try something I’ve never seen before - not using any coded authentication - on my end.

Over the years, I’ve managed to pick up more username and password combos on different websites than I care to even think of remembering. Every time I manage to hit one of these websites, I must remember the right username and password, if Firefox isn’t setup to remember it for me. In today’s age, however, there seems to be something that prevents me from designing this archaic system over again. Why should I write an Authentication Scheme when Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, MySpace and others have done it for me?

So, if you made it through all that and are still confused, I’m thinking about a website that could possibly be popular (isn’tthat every website?) with no “Register”, no “Login Username/Password” and all that junk. The only form of logging in is a choice of which service to log in with, be it Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live, Facebook and possibly more.

At the moment, Alexa, as flawed as they are, lists Yahoo and Google as the two most popular websites on the web. With those two websites, I can probably cover 90% or more of my users, although I may through Microsoft’s Live authentication scheme in as well to include more people. I know Zoho and others use both Yahoo & Google together, mixed with their own authentication scheme. I’m just a little curious how this would go over.