Check This Out

[geodomains]

Saw this and wondered how the hell a edu site can be run like this.

http://cit.nsw.edu.au/

Just amazed at how someone can abuse a edu domain.

Thoughts?

Don

 

[helloworld]

What is the actual problem ? I don't know if poor web design comes under abuse lol

 

[Cooper Mills DomainLawyer]

Hi Don

What in particular are you referring to ? If its the design, I think it could be better.

.edu.au has very tight eligibility requirements

 

[theseoconsultant]

Do a search for "online gambling"; you will see it appear on the first page - but it's been hacked in the past and is still ranking there by the looks of things.

 

[geodomains]

It's an edu domain , how can they offer gambling. Am I missing something.

Don

 

[johno69]

It's an edu domain , how can they offer gambling. Am I missing something.

Don

You only get that gambling site if you access it via Google or another search engine.

Access it via your link and you get a basic, but poorly designed website.

That's where the confusion comes in.

 

[helloworld]

Yeah it's just black hat/hackers. doubt it will last

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/anchors?site=cit.nsw.edu.au/

 

[geodomains]

You only get that gambling site if you access it via Google or another search engine.

Access it via your link and you get a basic, but poorly designed website.

That's where the confusion comes in.

That explains it, thanks. Yeah did get it from Google when I looked.

Don

 

[johno69]

It's a tactic used so when the owner of the site visits, they see no problem.

The hijack is done in the htaccess to capture users that arrived via search.

 

[James]

Yeah it's just black hat/hackers. doubt it will last

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/anchors?site=cit.nsw.edu.au/

The thing is this type of damage is hard to clean up over time re the link profile, probably have to disavow a whole heap of the spam. It would involve a bit of work.

But yeah hacked sites are never good too see.

 

[helloworld]

The thing is this type of damage is hard to clean up over time re the link profile, probably have to disavow a whole heap of the spam. It would involve a bit of work.

But yeah hacked sites are never good too see.

I doubt they'd bother cleaning their link profile. In these instances Google normally just kills the search for this site for that term.

Similar to the hacks done on another site a few years back that redirected to the vatican

 

[James]

I doubt they'd bother cleaning their link profile. In these instances Google normally just kills the search for this site for that term.

Similar to the hacks done on another site a few years back that redirected to the vatican

Depends how much brand equity the domain has. As Jono has stated the on site changed are not too crazy. But yes it can just be a case of starting again. I do not think a redirect would help the problems but.

 

[helloworld]

Depends how much brand equity the domain has. As Jono has stated the on site changed are not too crazy. But yes it can just be a case of starting again. I do not think a redirect would help the problems but.

In this instance it's really not an issue. Once they have fixed the script for redirects, (which I haven't seen active) then it's simply a matter of contacting google. It's an edu sub domain so unlikely they would start again or give too much concern with search marketing

 

[findtim]

then it's simply a matter of contacting google.

"simply......." , i'd be interested to know your expected wait time till resolution

tim

 

[Honan]

It's a tactic used so when the owner of the site visits, they see no problem.

The hijack is done in the htaccess to capture users that arrived via search.

Thank you johno69
Grateful for the explanation.
What is the best way to avoid this happening to your own site/s?

 

[johno69]

Thank you johno69
Grateful for the explanation.
What is the best way to avoid this happening to your own site/s?

if it's WordPress, use Wordfence. It will monitor file changes and notify you when anything changes, then you can fix it.

If not WordPress then manually keep an eye on the htaccess file.

I have previously set up a cron to notify me of any changes to any files when I had a Joomla site years ago under attack.