Link spammers set up shop on GMTV sofa website

sjb007 · 10-21-2008, 08:43 AM

The website of breakfast TV station GMTV was colonised by spammers over the weekend after its domain lapsed.

Enough to make you choke on your cornflakes

Instead of offering information on presenters or topics to be covered on the show the site became a showcase for links to dating and debt consolidation websites. GMTV - best known for its brightly coloured sofa-filled set and bland interviews conducted with celebrities by Lorraine Kelly - became a link farm for spammers after its domain came up for grabs.

Reg readers were quick to tell us about the problem, which initially appeared to be a simple web defacement. Normality returned after GMTV's webmaster flashed the plastic and renewed the web site's registration. The site has since been restored to full health.

Security watchers at Sophos did not register any spam as a result of the ruse, which was quickly nipped in the bud. The GMTV website was infected by the BadSrc-C strain of malware on 10 August, Sophos said, but that seems unrelated to its more recent problems.

GMTV's techies acknowledge our request for comment but said that the person who handled the issue was tied up. We have heard nothing more back at time of writing.

Full article here - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/21/link_spam_gmtv/

**Glaswegian** · 10-21-2008, 02:50 PM

Lol - couldn't happen to a dumber programme...

10-21-2008, 08:43 AM	#1 (permalink)
sjb007 Analyst, Security Team Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Lincoln UK Posts: 2,261 OS: Windows 7 Premium x64 My System	Link spammers set up shop on GMTV sofa website The website of breakfast TV station GMTV was colonised by spammers over the weekend after its domain lapsed. Enough to make you choke on your cornflakes Instead of offering information on presenters or topics to be covered on the show the site became a showcase for links to dating and debt consolidation websites. GMTV - best known for its brightly coloured sofa-filled set and bland interviews conducted with celebrities by Lorraine Kelly - became a link farm for spammers after its domain came up for grabs. Reg readers were quick to tell us about the problem, which initially appeared to be a simple web defacement. Normality returned after GMTV's webmaster flashed the plastic and renewed the web site's registration. The site has since been restored to full health. Security watchers at Sophos did not register any spam as a result of the ruse, which was quickly nipped in the bud. The GMTV website was infected by the BadSrc-C strain of malware on 10 August, Sophos said, but that seems unrelated to its more recent problems. GMTV's techies acknowledge our request for comment but said that the person who handled the issue was tied up. We have heard nothing more back at time of writing. Full article here - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/21/link_spam_gmtv/ __________________ If we have helped you then please consider donating Proud Member of ASAP & UNITE Since 2007

10-21-2008, 02:50 PM	#2 (permalink)
Glaswegian Moderator/ Rangemaster TSF Academy; Analyst, Security Team; Oor Wullie; TSF Surgeon and Resident Comic Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Glasgow Posts: 25,408 OS: Win XP Pro SP3 / Win 7 Pro My System Blog Entries: 10	Re: Link spammers set up shop on GMTV sofa website Lol - couldn't happen to a dumber programme... __________________ Iain - Defender of the Haggis and all things Scottish. I don't help by PM - post in the Forums. PC Safety & Security::PC running a bit slow?::Donate::Photographers Corner