Norton has moderated my blog to Dangerous!

[Norm S]

My blog has been tagged as Dangerous by Norton, is this the what wargame blogs and forums are going to become subject to?

I have put the Norton warning screenshot up on the blog.

Sad day! LINK

http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2023/02/my-blog-is-listed-as-dangerous-by-norton.html

[Mike]

That’s a bit crap.

I wonder how many people use Norton?

 

[Mike Headden]

I’m happy to report that neither Kaspersky not Firefox seem to have any problems with your blog page, Norm.

There again, having done a couple stints in IT systems support I loathe Norton and Macafee with a passion. So, no surprise you’re having problems!

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

[Andrew Beasley]

You raised a few concerns / questions in your comments on the post:

Why did it happen?

Normally a combination of words / links can trigger it, as can you site being hijacked or advertisement servers being taken over. In practise you may never find out the real reason till our robot overlords decide to show themselves and blog writers are put up against the wall…

Could it happen again?

Unfortunately yes – an override in the software can be removed or changed by subsequent posts. Appeals are normally easier if this does happen again though.

What is a false positive?

This is where a site reports as being dangerous (the ‘positive’ but) but is actually safe to visit (the ‘false’ bit) and is quite common.

I get an error message – is that linked?

Without the actual message it’s hard to say – Blogger is not the most stable of platforms and posting / commenting issues are very common. Normally AV companies do not share their data actively for checking comments – file based virus are tracked by a couple of sites (virustotal being the only one I would trust though). Feel free to PM the error message and I’ll take a look for you.

Will anyone using Norton get this message?

If they visit your site and are up to date then most likely they will get the message I’m afraid. Best tactic is to get the message out onto forums that your site is still safe (assuming it is) and you are trying to get this sorted. People should still be able to read the articles by telling the software they do want to visit or by using a news reader (RSS reader) like Feedly etc.

Phishing?

A term used to denote a site or person that is trying to collect personal information (i.e. they are fishing for info) – the deliberate miss-spelling is to show its malicious / computer based rather than nosey.

TBH – I would ditch Blogger, it’s very limited and is often used by rouge sites to harvest info. Google are not the quickest at cracking down so it tends to get rated as a higher risk than other sites.

Hope this helps.

[Norm S]

Thanks all and thanks Andrew for taking so much time to explain the technical side of things.

When I used to be buying windows based hardware, I remember that Norton was the pre-loaded AV software, so I am guessing that as a ‘go-to’ it is very widely used, so to what degree that impacts by blog, I  suppose I will just have to see and accept it in the round.

Hopefully, it will put the biggest fan base, the bots, off from visiting 🙂

[willz]

Norm I have Norton security and it works well, last year the system told me that lots of gaming blogs I visited were dangerous yours and this one to name a few.  All I did was go into my norton system and appealed against their system incorrect classification and it was auto corrected.

The problem was my end not yours.

[Norm S]

Thanks Bill, that is a great behind the scenes service to provide. The blogging / reader community is quite tight, so hopefully the process you describe is common and that in any case, most readers will know that it is OK to visit.

It wold be a shame to miss the next chapter of Piggy Longton 🙂

[MartinR]

I often think Norton and McAfee function much like malware themselves. I was head of systems support and development at a large organisation, and we binned them years ago on the Windows Estate.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[Paint it Pink]

MartinR wrote:

I often think Norton and McAfee function much like malware themselves. I was head of systems support and development at a large organisation, and we binned them years ago on the Windows Estate.

I concur. Norton and McAfee are a solution worse than the problem

As for Blogger being somehow a platform of scum and villainy, I would say that’s a matter of perspective. I use blogger for all my blogs and as for WordPress it to has its’ issues.

One is good, more is better
http://panther6actual.blogspot.co.uk/
http://ashleyrpollard.blogspot.co.uk/

[Mike]

All ok on my laptop and phone, but then I don’t use resource heavy intrusive stuff like that.

/waves fist at sky

/shouts at cloud

[OB]

It happens a lot Norm.  Mostly for no good reason.  Often it goes away again without explanation.

OB
http://withob.blogspot.co.uk/

[ian pillay]

That’s pants. I use that windows defender seems to work with out any issues. Also I don’t have to pay for it.

Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

[Norm S]

I have been running the various blogs that I visit through the Norton filter and most are coming back with the same Threat – Phishing as mine. I am still waiting for a reply from Norton re further information I submitted on the appeals process.

I have not heard back after 2 days, considering the first reply was within 2 hours, I am wondering wether their system filter additional appeal applications out.

[Andrew Beasley]

I’ve logged a ‘this site is OK’ as well – so I’ll see if I get anything but automated answers for you.

You have no adverts and the links on the page are to valid blogs so it may be having a problem with the name (given the current situation in the Ukraine) but its really hard to tell…

One possible route of appeal is direct to NortonLifeLock as this seems to be driving the rating. You can get hold of them at https://www.nortonlifelock.com/gb/en/contact-us/

If anyone can spare a minute or two – please go to the Norton helpdesk article here and follow the instructions to say the site is safe. The URL (site name) to request is https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/ and I’ve also flagged it as gaming.

[Norm S]

Thank you.

[willz]

Norm just tried to enter your blog as a safe website and got this from Norton.

The website is currently under review. Please review the rating after 48 hours and submit dispute.

[irishserb]

Norm, I check your site, more or less, on a daily basis on a machine with Norton and have never gotten the message.  I have checked it several times since this thread was started, without warning.

If Norton has flagged it, should I not be getting the warning?

 

[Norm S]

Thanks Bill, then I shall wait with a little more patience, looks like it might be being passed up the chain to a ‘real’ person.

I’m really not sure how Norton go about their alert system, but from what I have garnered so far, as. Norton User if you are signed in to something called something like safe web, then you can see a rating report, otherwise I think the words Not Secure appear up on your address bar.

I am getting the impression that a lot of blogs are getting tagged as being a threat.

[willz]

Norm S wrote:

Thanks Bill, then I shall wait with a little more patience, looks like it might be being passed up the chain to a ‘real’ person. I’m really not sure how Norton go about their alert system, but from what I have garnered so far, as. Norton User if you are signed in to something called something like safe web, then you can see a rating report, otherwise I think the words Not Secure appear up on your address bar. I am getting the impression that a lot of blogs are getting tagged as being a threat.

Yes Norm you are correct like I said about a year ago I had this from Norton on every gaming website I visited and even on the utilities blogs?  Go figure modern tech problem, I had send a safe website report on about 40+ blogs??

[Author]

Posts