Google Sticks Malware Warning On Tourism Malaysia Website

Guess what? I was searching for the term: Visit Malaysia Year 2008. (See accompanying graphic.)

The second item on the list which turned up was a reference to Tourism Malaysia - but wait a minute! Google has highlighted it as a SITE NOT SAFE TO VISIT!

If I was the Tourism Minister, I would have called up Google and asked what the world's most intelligent search engine meant by sending out a Malware Warning?

Is it trying to sabotage the Nation's effort in promoting tourism? Conspiracy theories abound if you want to put your idle mind to work...

In any case, I clicked the link - despite the Malware Warning and was duly brought to this page (see below).





I was particularly attracted to this message:

Or you can continue to http://www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my/ at your own risk. For detailed information about the problems we found, visit Google's Safe Browsing diagnostic page for this site.

I decided not to risk it but visit the diagnostic page instead. Guess what I found?

What is the current listing status for www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my/?

Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 1 time(s) over the past 90 days.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 1 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 1 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 05/01/2008, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 04/27/2008.

Malicious software includes 1 scripting exploit(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 4 new processes on the target machine.

Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including 852599.cn.

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?
Over the past 90 days, www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my/ appeared to function as an intermediary for the infection of 1 site(s) including skmethodist.edu.my.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

How did this happen?

In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.

Boy, was I relieved. But how many people have browsed to Tourism Malaysia's website through their bookmarks? I wonder.

This is probably an anomaly - maybe some virus infection of sort. Afterall not all sites are virus-free.

However, with the Tourism Malaysia being the authority for travel to Malaysia, I hope its webmasters and the Minister in charge are aware of the current quagmire it is in and take remedial steps.

Otherwise, it may be on the receiving end of bad public relations and broken goodwill.

Will someone alert the good minister?