The Norton Problem (Blog Note)

We recently had a spate of readers who were getting a warning from Norton saying TOP is not a safe site and that they should keep away. While it might sometimes put your discretionary cash in danger by encouraging you to buy a new lens, TOP is not otherwise dangerous.

(Somewhat suspiciously, all this happened right after an old subscription to Norton's services expired, and I declined to renew.)

If you had that problem, here's the rundown: TypePad tells me you're probably getting that warning because I linked to a site that is considered unsafe. First of all, sorry. Second, I don't know which link caused / is causing the problem, so if you could follow the "full report" link in your warning and let me know if there's any indication of which post is causing the trouble, I'd be grateful.

Third, I went to Google's Safe Browsing site status at Google Transparency Report and ran my URL, and TOP got the little green checkmark: "No unsafe content found." Then I went to Norton Safe Web, and requested a report for TOP, and got the green box with a big "OK" in it and the word "Safe" below it. So as far as I can tell both Google and Norton are now giving TOP the all clear.

So hopefully that means you are not getting the "danger / keep away" warnings from Norton any more. If you are, please let me know. And thanks to those who reported the problem the first time around! I'll try to do better about being careful what I link to.

—Mike, ABSCW (At Best Semi-Competent Webmaster)

Comments

[Richard Parkin]

I’ve never had that warning but, as I’ve pointed out before, the link to the late Michael Tapes’ site under “patrons” at top left goes nowhere.

[Jeff]

I don’t use Norton, and haven’t dealt with their warnings. But I commented on your prior post about your inserted Amazon link for purchasing a new M10 Monochrom. The price shows as $7944, which seems suspicious, as the official retail price for a new one is $8995.

[MikeR]

Big red Norton warning still happening

[Frank]

Hi Mike,
No change on the Norton problem from my machine. Still throws up the warning. No details in the report either. Nothing at all. Just flags your website entry page.
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html

moz-extension://459002c5-ef36-42e2-81e8-479398e4a99e/content/ui/blockedPage.html?originalURL=https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html&reportURL=https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html&ulang=en&blockPageType=malicious&continueToSiteURL=https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html">https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html&ulang=en&blockPageType=malicious&continueToSiteURL=https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html">https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html&reportURL=https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html&ulang=en&blockPageType=malicious&continueToSiteURL=https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html

i tried disputing, but they automatically did nothing.

[Nico]

No safety warning here, but images are still not loading. And today T.O.P.'s masthead is gone too. Russian hackers?

[Chris Dale]

Once upon a time, Norton had a good reputation as a developer/seller of effective anti-virus and utilities software. I purchased their products happily in the 90s. Years later, after installing a then current version of Norton on my desktop, I went on a vacation with my laptop. Thinking that I could use the software on one computer at a time (that is that I held the license personally), I installed the software on my laptop. Foolish me; almost immediately the software locked up my laptop every time I tried to get on-line. While Norton may have had cause for concern (apparently, I was trying to use the license in manner not permitted by its terms) the company’s solution – lock up my laptop – IMHO functioned a lot like malware.

I never purchase or used a Norton product again. Recently, I received an email from my current anti-virus software provider, Bullguard, that it would be was merging with Norton. I immediately uninstalled Bullguard, despite three months remaining on my license.

Once bitten, twice shy.

[Tony Roberts]

Thanks for the heads up about this, Mike.
I hope everybody who has a site does the same.

[Michael]

"THEY" know too much about "US"

When a security company such as Norton can flag you for dropping their subscription service that shows you just how intrusive others can become into our personal lives.
Cameras and microphones in our "smart" TVs, plus Alexa and Siri have been with us, literally, for a decade. Even the ability to track our every move just with our cell phones is most disturbing.
However, "THEY" have a master plan that does not include "US" in its design.
Am I a conspiracy theorist, no not really, just a 75year old man that has been around computers since my early military days in 1967. How many of you remember punched paper tape, 80-column cards, 40lb disk packs with 64mb of data, and fast spinning 12" reels of mag tape that had to be stored in an climate controlled chamber, or programming in octal machine language for building sized computers with less computing power than my ANCIENT iphone8?

[Richard Tugwell]

Website security has become more and more complex over the years - or rather the various ways that services try and determine that a website is safe for browsers. For example there are a few standard security headers which TOP does not send. (Look here https://securityheaders.com/?q=http%3A%2F%2Ftheonlinephotographer.typepad.com%2F&followRedirects=on)

These are generally regarded as not too serious, but as I say, some services are might be looking at this differently. I've had to update many sites after client probes have highlighted them.

Additionally, I'm not sure how the redirects are managed from theonlinephotographer.com - some services might look at this suspiciously.

Not saying any of this is related to your Norton issue of course. I'm sure Typepad support should be able to clarify

[Rene]

Mike, this is likely a phishing or some other scam from a third party rather than Norton. Readers should check the email address from which they received the "unsafe" notice. I get this crap regularly and not one was ever legitimate.

[John Camp]

I'm sure you have lawyers on this site, so perhaps one will opine about the possibilities of a lawsuit. Norton deliberately attacked you in your profession by spreading incorrect information about you and your major source of income. That's virtually a definition of libel, if my old AP libel book is still relevant.

Maybe they'd settle for a million of two.

[Dan Khong]

Mike

I have no doubt that TOP is a safe and enjoyable website to learn about photography, about life, about poetry and philosophy, the humanities, and music and lots more.

This trust is based on the person behind TOP. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.

Dan K.

[Grant]

About the time that you mentioned Norton, I noticed that there was no masthead on the page. I've tried loading the home page on several different devices and with a variety of browsers and operating systems. No matter what I use, there is only a pale yellow area at the top of the page. The area is however, still active and clicking on it takes me to the Welcome page.

[MikeR]

When I tell Norton to enter the site anyway, it opens to the comments page. Perhaps something associated with that? Sorry, no good guesses.

[Thomas Mc Cann]

I generally ignore such warnings

[Luke]

More often than not, TOP helps dissuade me from from buying more gear.

Online sanity? So rare. Thank you.

[Ken]

For what it's worth, a number of years ago a client ran into a similar problem and it turned out to be the recently non-renewed Norton software on her computer. Once uninstalled the problem went away.

[Bill Tyler]

I really like 'Flowers At The Edge Of A Field'.

Pardon some criticism, and feel free to snip out the following. 'Chapel Door' really bothers me. It affects my eye the same way that a mis-phased stereo speaker affects my ear. IMHO it needs to be either exactly centered with the lens axis perpendicular to the door, or much more out of line. Of course, it's your image and your choices. This is just one person's opinion, and completely subjective.