Someone call security: How [frockwriter] got blacklisted by Google

Welcome to the blog that you have when you're not having a blog [NB This post was published simultaneously on frockwriter's Posterous, to circumvent security issues]. Just a quick headsup about the security ballsup that has gone down today on the frockwriter main blog. As anyone other than RSS and email subscribers may have noticed, since approximately 1144 AEST today, visitors to the site have been greeted by a great big red alert sign with the noticification: “Reported Attack Page! This web page at frockwriter.blogspot.com has been reported as an attack page and has been blocked based on your security preferences”. Together with a nifty little security guard icon holding a stop sign. Having been Google spoofed in April, I immediately assumed that a one-on-one hack job was not beyond the realm of possibilities. On closer inspection, however, it emerged that the issue was affecting several other Australian sites: Pages Digital and at least three other sites, the city-centric digi hipster guides, Two Thousand, Three Thousand and Five Thousand. What’s the common link? UPDATED: NOW OBVIOUSLY BACK ON THE AIR. SEE EXPLANATION AT THE END OF POST. 


 
PagesDigital is frockwriter’s advertising partner and while there is currently no campaign on frockwriter, PagesDigital created and managed the little flash animation that linked through to our recent New Zealand Fashion Week coverage. It in turn was connected to Pages Digital's OpenX-powered ad server. 

OpenX claims to be the world’s leading independent provider of digital advertising technology, serving 350 billion ads per month across 150,000 websites in 10 countries.

According to Pages Digital, an OpenX security issue has been identified and an update was released today and installed.
Having utilised Google’s Webmasters Diagnostics service, I can report that no malware is currently detected on frockwriter. To be on the absolute safe side, I removed the flash animation.

However the fact of the matter is that none of this is going to assist anyone immediately remove themselves from Google’s blacklist, as the site review request process can, according to Google, take WEEKS.


Obviously RSS and email subscribers won’t know what’s going on because they’re simply accessing a feed. And of course while subscribers are fantastic, they don’t contribute to daily traffic which, in frockwriter’s case, has really tanked today. I have been referred to Australian agency Feel Creative which reportedly set Pages Digital up with OpenX (and possibly the Two Thousand crew as well). So far noone at Feel Creative has felt very communicative and gotten back to me. So will keep you posted.

One of the questions I’d like to ask Feel Creative is: was there a new OpenX security update launched after the one that was released on September 14? Because that appears to be the last time that OpenX in fact issued a security update. Or did someone simply forget to tell the Australian publishers?

Oops. 


UPDATE 2130: Yes indeedy, someone did forget to tell the Australians - and thousands of other publishers that were affected overnight according to Feel Creative's Chris Hang, who just got back to me. Hang reports that only today did Feel Creative head to the OpenX site to track down the security update [OpenX 2.8.7] that was released on September 14. Why didn't Feel Creative have the new security patch prior to today? Hang didn't have an answer for that. But he did say that it would be the last time his company uses OpenX. "This is a dealbreaker" he told me.


In what appears to be a miraculously fast turnaround from Google [and many thanks to the efforts of Feel Creative] at time of writing the security warnings had been removed from both Frockwriter and Pages Digital. They still affect Two Thousand, Three Thousand and Five Thousand [UPDATE 25/10 - the three latter sites are now back on the air as well]. 

photo: cheeseburger.com/BBBella

And now for a commercial break

mad men barbie/amc

Just a quick post to flag a few changes to frockwriter. First up, as you will see, a slightly tweaked template. Please bear with me as I iron out the bugs. Secondly, back on July 4 I mentioned that frockwriter might one day go pro. Well this is that day - at least, for a trial period. To the right, you will notice a new addition to the layout: our first ad. In the interests of transparency, I just wanted to clarify a few points upfront. In so doing, I am not attempting to criticise choices made by any other bloggers. People make their own decisions, based on their own circumstances and business models. So here goes.

• This is a real ad – as distinct from a mockup, designed to show advertisers what their ads could look like. 

• This is a bona fide display ad. It is not affiliate marketing - or in other words, a free display ad that offers rewards (ie a small percentage of sales) following click-through sales of products to readers. 

• All advertising arrangements are managed by a third party. I have no direct contact with the advertiser.

• The display ad is the extent of the commercial arrangement. There will be no hidden extras, no sponsored links within the blog's content, no sponsored posts and no personal endorsements. What you see is what you get.

Pagesdigital.com is my advertising partner.

A pioneering Australian digital publisher that has been operating since 2004, Pagesdigital recently approached me with a view to selling advertising on frockwriter. It seemed like a good fit and so here we go. I approve the creative, but Pagesdigital otherwise handles everything to do with the advertising. There is no consultancy over content. Frockwriter remains completely independent.

Over the past two years I have been approached by multiple parties with commercial proposals. These have included several prestige online retailers which of course have to pay for display advertising on more established online outlets, offering affiliate marketing opportunities; several content aggregators (those polite enough to ask - as many other bloggers would be aware, others just take without asking); and one media player who approached me to supply content for their new online news venture - with the caveat that frockwriter would need to be off the air if I was involved because, they argued, "we wouldn't want to have to compete with you for the best content".

Just on affiliate marketing, for the uninitiated, it is estimated that a very high percentage of what looks like real advertising on fashion blogs is in fact affiliate marketing. Obviously this arrangement suits some people - notably advertisers. I'm not convinced it's a great arrangement for bloggers.

Like a small percentage of bloggers, I also happen to be a professional journalist who normally makes a living selling news to mainstream media outlets - which in turn, sell advertising around that content.

I would actually prefer to have no advertising at all on the blog.

For the moment, however, advertising appears to be a fact of life if publishing is to be sustainable. Because when you break it down, 30 news stories of 200-400 words apiece blogged over the course of a month – and there are months in which I write more than this – equate to 6,000-12,000 words. That’s a hell of a lot of content to be giving away to not only readers, but mainstream outlets that pay staff and freelance contributors to generate content - and which regularly pick up this blog's stories.

It’s been great building an online brand for the past two years. No idea, frankly, where it is heading but I felt this was a step in the right direction. If you enjoy reading this blog and you would like to continue having it as a news resource, then I hope you do too.

Thanks once again for your interest. On with the show.