IT’S NOT AS IF we ever really left; it’s just that we are back on the net after an enforced hibernation of sorts.
The PCIJ institutional blog and the main portal had been down for more than a week after Google reported the sites as among many that have reflected malware issues recently. Those of you who have tried to access the sites since December 18 were automatically redirected to a Google warning that the sites seemed to distribute malware to visitors.
After extensive review by our platform architect Markku Seguerra, the PCIJ found that the warnings were only triggered by a confluence of factors: some old software on our server, as well as some spammy IP addresses on the same IP block as our service provider.
After a lot of hard work by our platform architect over the holidays, Google finally cleared out website and removed it from the malware “bad list.”
With this clearance, the PCIJ resumes its normal web activity, with a promise to deliver more in-depth investigative reports in the coming year.