Gizmodo hit by malware

Security key on keyboard

Uber gadget site Gizmodo is the latest victim of the security bad guys, having confirmed that those visiting its site of late may have been infected by ad-served malware.

An apology has been posted on the website, which is incredibly popular and receives 3.1 million page views each day pointing to the sheer volume of people who may have been affected.

Interestingly open source is being blamed for at least some of the troubles, with Gizmodo saying the use of mostly Linux operating systems in the business means the issue wasn't picked up earlier.

"Guys, I'm really sorry but we had some malware running on our site in ad boxes for a little while last week on Suzuki ads. They somehow fooled our ad sales team through an elaborate scam. It's taken care of now, and only a few people should have been affected, but this isn't something we take lightly as writers, editors and tech geeks," a statement on the website claims.

"Everything should be cleared up but you should be checking "qegasysguard.exe" if you're experiencing random popups. Be careful, load up some antivirus and make sure your system is clean. I'm sorry."

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.