Update: PinkNews.co.uk and Google security issues

PinkNews logo on pink background with rainbow corners.

Over the past day, users of Firefox, Safarri, Chrome and Google’s search engine have been unable to access PinkNews.co.uk because of alleged security vulnerabilities.

Google has listed PinkNews.co.uk as a site containing “badware” (viruses) on the StopBadware.org service.

The website lists a number of alleged security vulnerabilities that they claim were installed by third parties, likely hackers.

Having meticulously searched through every single piece of code on the website, we can not find any vulnerabilities at all and are puzzled as to why this has happened.

Indeed much of the external code on the website is associated with Google’s own Adsense system who serve many of the advertisement on the website.

We believe that PinkNews.co.uk is safe to access and do recommend either using Internet Explorer or the Opera browser in order to access the website. You may also have to enter the web address manually (https://thepinknews.com) rather than searching for PinkNews on Google.

Yahoo’s rival safe searching system does not show any security vunrabilities on PinkNews.co.uk, nor does Norton’s security toolbar.

However, using an anti-virus system is always advisable and should protect you in the event that malicious code is placed on the website.

The block on access to PinkNews.co.uk is particularly serious in terms of ensuring that LGBT news is widely disseminated but a long term bar on access will also have a catastrophic financial impact for us as a small business.

Last month, Google accidentally tagged the entire internet as content that “might harm your computer”, although the mistake was rectified an hour later.

Contrary to speculation on the comments section of PinkNews.co.uk, there is currently no real evidence that this situation may have a more sinister cause. We will leave it up to you to judge.

Google has yet to respond to our requests to remove the bar. We will provide an update to our readers as soon as we receive a response.

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