Possible Site Security Issue

[craigkillie]

I just tried to get to the forum homepage using my usual bookmark and noticed that the page looked a little bit weird.  It was a bit "whiter" than usual, and some of the the text looked to be poorer resolution than normal.  There was also an odd advert at the top of the page for something called "JUSTPREMIUM".

When I hovered over any link on the page, it came up with the "buffering" circle, suggesting that the page hadn't been fully loaded, and when I tried to click into a forum I was directed to the Improve Digital website.  On closer investigation, it looked as though I wasn't really on the P&B home page at all (although I think the web address said I was), but instead on a website which had a copy of the P&B homepage as an image, where clicking anywhere on that image took you to the Improve Digital site.

I ran a malware scan on my computer and it didn't find anything, so I'm wondering if there is/was an issue at your end?

EDIT: It happened again - see attached screenshot.  You can see from the URL at the top that I haven't been redirected to another site - the address says I'm still on P&B.

 

[WaffenThinMint]

Just Premium are the advert providing company. They focus on a lot of "in your face" type adverts.

[Div]

9 hours ago, craigkillie said:

I just tried to get to the forum homepage using my usual bookmark and noticed that the page looked a little bit weird.  It was a bit "whiter" than usual, and some of the the text looked to be poorer resolution than normal.  There was also an odd advert at the top of the page for something called "JUSTPREMIUM".

When I hovered over any link on the page, it came up with the "buffering" circle, suggesting that the page hadn't been fully loaded, and when I tried to click into a forum I was directed to the Improve Digital website.  On closer investigation, it looked as though I wasn't really on the P&B home page at all (although I think the web address said I was), but instead on a website which had a copy of the P&B homepage as an image, where clicking anywhere on that image took you to the Improve Digital site.

I ran a malware scan on my computer and it didn't find anything, so I'm wondering if there is/was an issue at your end?

EDIT: It happened again - see attached screenshot.  You can see from the URL at the top that I haven't been redirected to another site - the address says I'm still on P&B.

 

The ads we pull in come from a pool of external sites, we don't actually host the ads ourselves so if you see the website talking to some other URL that's what it's doing.

Shouldn't be causing any issues with the formatting though?

[craigkillie]

3 minutes ago, Div said:

The ads we pull in come from a pool of external sites, we don't actually host the ads ourselves so if you see the website talking to some other URL that's what it's doing.

Shouldn't be causing any issues with the formatting though?

 

This wasn't a normal advert though - the whole P&B homepage was actually set up as a link to that website.  No matter where I clicked, it wanted to take me to Improve Digital.  I had to reload the page in order to browse P&B properly.

[Div]

Just now, craigkillie said:

 

This wasn't a normal advert though - the whole P&B homepage was actually set up as a link to that website.  No matter where I clicked, it wanted to take me to Improve Digital.  I had to reload the page in order to browse P&B properly.

Ok mate, thanks for that info. The Ad guys are testing another new ad unit so it might be related to that. I will ask them!

[Div]

Yeah this was indeed the new ad unit they are testing. Should look like this, but it's capped at 2-3 times a day per IP address;