Back online and apologies to our site users

After dismantling and recreating our website overnight, it’s back online and free of a piece of malicious code that was targeting older versions of the Android mobile operating system.

Site visitors using anything other than an Android phone or tablet saw nothing amiss, but older Android users were redirected to a site that tried to trick users into installing a fake “critical update”.

The malware attack came days after Google confirmed it would not be updating a security flaw in versions of its operating system below 4.4. Cashing in on this, the malware scanned website visitors and only activated if it detected a vulnerable Android operating system.

While the malware has been removed from our site, users of older versions of Android will need to clear the web browsing cache on their devices to allow normal access to the site. We would also recommend that all Android users install anti-malware software from a reputable company.

We take the security of our website very seriously and since it was set up, 15 years ago, this is the first time we have been affected by a malware attack. The loophole that allowed the intruders access to the website code has been dealt with and additional security measures put in place to prevent a similar attack in future.

In the meantime, we sincerely apologise to our website visitors for the problems this exploit has caused over the past few days.