DealsDirect taken down by malware in ads

Online department store DealsDirect has been blacklisted by Google after a rogue piece of code hidden inside a third-party’s advertisement infected the site.

Co-founder and chief executive Paul Greenberg told SmartCompany he is considering changing some of the company’s advertising structures.

The incident, which happened earlier this morning, saw Google block users from accessing DealsDirect after it was suspected of harbouring a piece of rogue code. It is not yet known what caused the rogue code and the details of the advertisers involved.

DealsDirect is one of the country’s most popular online retail sites, acting as a giant department store selling thousands of products at cheap prices.

Greenberg says the incident occurred early today and the company has been busy at work trying to ensure proper access is restored. While access has been restored, the company is still working to find the root cause of the problem.

“It’s the same old story, we outsourced our ads capability to better serve us, and one of our outsources had a little bit of a kink. Normally these things can’t get through the door, but through an external software source we’ve had a little bit of a problem.”

Greenberg says the site’s users were not affected by the shutdown, but that the incident may cause the company to consider changing some of its advertising structures.

“Perhaps… we’ve taken every precaution necessary but in this case it hasn’t worked in our favour. There will definitely be a debrief, but as I said before, no customers were affected by the code at any stage.”

This is because Google regularly scans sites suspected of harbouring malware and issues a warning to users before they enter a site. The warning gives users a chance of moving to the DealsDirect site, but only if they consent.

As of this afternoon, the site is back up and no trace of any blacklisting can be found.