Tag Archives: Google

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Open Redirects Under Attack by Spammers

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Albino alligator

I wrote a post last Friday on the Google Webmaster Central Blog about the widespread abuse of open redirects round the web.  If you have some code on your site that will redirect users to an arbitrary destination based on url parameters, watch out.

“But Jason,” you say, “why would I have code that would redirect users to an arbitrary destination based on url parameters?”  You might be surprised.  Code that tracks clicks for ads or analytics, search results pages, and even some login pages are vulnerable.

There are actually lots of legitimate reasons to redirect users, but unfortunately spammers can use them too if you’re not careful.  Read the post to find out more and learn ways to make your site less attractive to attackers.

Not Every Site on Google May Harm your Computer

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If you did any searching this morning you may have run into oddly ubiquitous “This site may harm your computer” warnings. I don’t work directly on the anti-malware efforts, but I’m sure everyone on the larger search quality team feels the same, sorry for the inconvenience.

You can read more about what happened on the official Google Blog.

Now, if your site is still showing up with “may harm your computer” warnings, it probably because you have actually been compromised. It’s not always obvious – look for hidden iframes and other inserted code.

A Twitter Experiment: 15 Movies, 30 Hours

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I’ve been known to do geeky things.  For one, I’ve been experimenting with putting parts of my life on the web live via Twitter.  For another, I’ve been going to a 30-hour science fiction movie marathon with friends for the past 14 years.

It’s time to merge the two together in a Twitter Experiment this weekend.  Starting on Friday, 7 p.m. EST I’ll be posting updates to Twitter about the movies, ridiculous sci-fi plot devices, funny cracks from the crowd, and the general movie marathon experience.

Now for some questions and answers:

Q:  How can I follow along?

A:  Follow me on Twitter and watch the snippets roll in.  Alternatively, if you’re connected to me on Facebook you can watch my status updates, it’s the same thing.

Q:  I’m going to be there, how can I participate?

Let me know in the comments below, we’ll make it a thing.

EDIT:  Use hashtag #marathon34 in any Tweets.

Q:  Why would anyone have even the slightest interest in this?

A:  The CWRU Science Fiction Marathon is really an excuse for a bunch of sarcastic people to shout insults and rejoinders at a movie screen.  It’s like a huge, live-action, sleep-deprived version of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Q:  No, I mean why would anyone have the slightest interest in you going to a movie marathon?

A:  Point taken, its not like I’m famous or anything (outside of being temporarily internet famous in Australia, of course).  Luckily many of my readers are friends, colleagues, and a bit geeky themselves. If you’re going to get a tiny-text-snippet tour through a science fiction marathon, though, I might as well be your guide – I have a fair knowledge of the genre, I used to be a movie reviewer, and I like to make sarcastic comments.

Q:  How is this possible?

A:  An iPhone, and WiFi or the regular data connection, that’s how.  I might also play around with my G1 phone with Android a bit.  If my connectivity fails for some reason, I reserve the right to basically give up and pretend I never even mentioned it.

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One other thing I just can’t leave out of this post – when I mentioned this to my coworkers, they poked fun.  My coworkers at Google.  That’s right, I’m officially too geeky for Google.