MetService site safe to access after malware attack

MetService's website is safe to access, after a malicious attack redirected some visitors who viewed ads on the site to a website that downloads malware files.

In a statement released today, MetService said its ad server had been compromised by a malicious attack.  It said a file containing JavaScript code was uploaded into its ad database, causing the browser of anyone viewing an ad on the website to be redirected, without the user noticing, to a website which downloads malware files.

The statement from MetService said its web support team had noticed the issue at about 8pm on Tuesday night and immediately shut down the ad server.

“Prior to this we had received no reports of any issues.”

The statement said MetService’s best estimates placed the risk of users at about four hours in total.

Met Service said the site was now safe to access, and had been since last night.

MetService marketing and communications manager Jacqui Bridges told NBR the site had received record numbers of visitors to the site due to the recent severe weather across New Zealand, and the attack was most likely intended to capitalise on this. 

The statement said the source of the attack had been traced to an overseas IP address, “but this is sure to be merely the start of a long trail that may never lead back to the culprit.”

MetService said it did not know what malware could have been downloaded, since such sites may try to download one or more of a number of such files.

“An ad server upgrade incorporating a fix is now being installed in order to resolve the issue.  The ad server database is also in the process of being cleaned and rebuilt.”

Ms Bridges said MetService was not aware of how many people had been affected, but that she knew of one through looking at tweets to the organisation, and that there had been reports of anti-virus software alerts for other users.

“So far we haven’t seen anyone have major issues, as I say it’s just been the tweets that we’ve been aware of. We’re just keeping an eye on that, making sure that if anyone else comes up with problems that we’re aware of, we can talk to them about it.”