Truthdig Is Safe

Posted on Dec 28, 2012

Patty Maher (CC-BY-ND)

Visitors to our site Friday may have seen a malware warning. We want to assure our readers that we are safe and cleared by Google. For more information, read on.

We were hacked. A security vulnerability allowed for the possibility that malicious code could be transmitted from another site through us. For this reason, Truthdig was placed on a list of dangerous sites maintained by Google and used by other browser companies. Our technology team worked quickly to close the vulnerabilities and clear the site of potential dangers. However, it takes time for browser companies to re-crawl, re-test and clear sites such as ours that have been attacked. For that reason, it appeared for most of the day that Truthdig was dangerous, although the danger was quickly dealt with.

To the best of my knowledge, no damage was done, however this is an important reminder to use the most current version of any Web browser and to routinely scan your computer for malware. As a voracious Internet user myself, I am grateful that Google monitors such things and maintains a high standard. At this time, Truthdig has been cleared by Google and we are fully confident that the site is safe.

We do not know who attacked us, or why. We do know, because we have relationships with those sites, that the Jewish Journal and the Daniel Pearl Foundation were attacked on the same day, though this could be a coincidence.

It is in part for fear of attack that Truthdig outsources our comments and newsletter features to other companies that can safeguard their security. Neither of these features would have been compromised and you should feel safe using them and the rest of the site.

As our name indicates, we will always be transparent, forthcoming and direct with our readers. You deserve nothing less. If you have any questions, please use our feedback form.

Thanks, as always, for your patience and support. During and after the attack, we received many notes from concerned friends and it’s good to be reminded we have such a strong community of readers and supporters.

Now let’s get back to work.

Peter Z. Scheer is the managing editor of Truthdig.

—Posted by Peter Z. Scheer.

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