Slashdot Mirror
Chrome and Firefox Flag The Pirate Bay As a 'Phishing' Site...Again (torrentfreak.com)
The Pirate Bay's download pages are being blocked by Chrome and Firefox. These pages have been flagged as "deceptive," by Google's safe browsing program. TorrentFreak reports that "millions" of Pirate Bay users are currently unable to access the torrent detail pages on the site without receiving a stark warning. The report adds: The homepage and various categories can be reached without problems, but when visitors navigate to a download page they are presented with an ominous red warning banner. According to Google the notorious torrent site is linked to a phishing effort, where malicious actors try to steal the personal information of visitors. It's likely that the security error is caused by a malicious third-party advertisement. The TPB team informs TorrentFreak that they are aware of the issue, which they hope will be resolved soon.
And again, just like the previous mention, it's not true.
The loads normally, no problem.
Maybe it's a US-only thing, where the NSA, handily paid by the media monopolists, is trying to intercept any traffic to that site?
That's what I hear some people are doing.
I do not know about Chrome. However, there are two preferences that control the checks for malware and phishing sites in Mozilla-based browsers (e.g., Firefox, SeaMonkey).
For SeaMonkey:
1. Select [Edit > Preferences] on the menu bar.
2. On the Preferences window, select Privacy & Security.
3. On the Privacy & Security pane, there are two checkboxes, one for malware Web sites and one for phishing sites. Unchecking a checkbox disables the corresponding check.
For Firefox, I am not sure if there is a user interface. However, the preference variable browser.safebrowsing.enabled controls the check for phishing Web sites; and the preference variable browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled controls the check for mailware sites. Setting one of these to False via about:config disables the corresponding check. I have the PrefBar extension installed for SeaMonkey. In it, I created buttons to enable and disable each of these checks.
from time to time. Remember this is partly based on user reports.
I'm sure the majority of Slashdot users are savvy and looking for specific things (like free Linux ISOs or creative commons content... right). I would bet a nickle there are threats that people have encountered downloading things willy-nilly from the PirateBay. I've heard of music and movie files that were really executables, for example. I'm also fairly confident that malware comes through ads from time to time which many less-experienced users are going to be seeing.
So for many Windows users I would rate many torrent indexing sites as high risk for malware infection. Sad thing is, that's pretty meaningless though as commonly used "legitimate" commercial sites get malware in their ad networks from time to time. uBlock (origin?), and ghostery are standard installs for any computer I work on for friends and family. Just can't risk it today.
Pirate Bay has categories "Applications" and "Games" (aka executables). It seems most of these are supposedly hacked to get around the licensing check.
Chrome may be indicating that some of these hacked executables are ... wait for it ... HACKED!
It's almost unbelievable, hackers who illegally mess with software sometimes illegally add malware. I'm shocked!
Can't you just type "badidea" and proceed? I don't mind the warning.
It is harmful to our society and breeds disrespect for the law which was duly passed by an elected congress.
"It's likely that the security error is caused by a malicious third-party advertisement."
The ads on that site are terrible, and it's no wonder browsers flagging the site as suspicious. If a web site chooses to plaster dodgy ads all over the place, then they can deal with the fallout.
Also again, like all the previous times, the tor .onion address ( http://uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk.onion/ ) continues to work flawlessly, no matter what, as long as you have a tor proxy/tor browser/whatever running.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
They also have a .onion address ( http://uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk.onion/ ) so you can simply fire up your tor proxy, and it works flawlessly.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
It's the pop-up ads that is doing this, not the pirate bay main site. When you click on a link, it brings a pop-up, and that's what is triggering the phishing report.
If you're using Firefox, switch to Pale Moon - it's basically Firefox before the suckage grew to ginormous proportions. If you're using Chrome... well, I don't know what to tell you. I never could stand it.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Just like the last time it was reported, no, no it's not being flagged. Just stop it with this crap. It wasn't funny the first time.
Firefox uses google blacklist (and helps build the list), to avoid duplication of work.
This list grabs several info from several sources and sometimes innocent sites get in in the cross fire... google added some google sites to the blacklist at least twice in the last few years. Usually the source of the problem is comments/posts and ads networks. If the comments we can control, ads networks are shitty and very hard to control... so yes, shit happen
Higuita
These pages have been flagged as "deceptive," by Google's safe browsing program.
Well, that may not be entirely inaccurate, given some recent texts in the search results, being probably some advertisements for VPN services (I'm not sure if those are ads) using some scary language about federal crimes (quite amusing for us foreigners).
Ezekiel 23:20
If Google/Firefox/etc wrongly labels a site as being a risk, there should be repercussions. I don't imagine TPB will sue Google but if I had a legit business that was harmed by this, then I absolutely would.