Michigan airport turns off Web site over malware risk

An airport in Michigan reportedly took down its Web site late on Monday in response to a computer virus risk. John Leyden writes that the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids temporarily pulled its site in response to an unspecified malware threat, local channel Wood TV reports. The site was restored by late Tuesday morning. During the period it was offline, travelers were advised to check with their airlines directly, rather than the airport, about flight times. Airport bosses took the decision to temporarily suspend the site rather than expose surfers to computer hacking attacks, Wood TV reports.

The Grand Rapids Press, which has a screenshot of the downed Web site, adds that the unspecified malware also infected the airport’s admin system.

Malware threats on legitimate Web sites are increasingly commonplace and normally arise when hackers succeed in planting scripts that redirect to sites serving up computer viruses, spyware or scareware. Such drive-by download attacks rely on exploiting browser vulnerabilities or tricking users into installing fake codecs supposedly needed to view multimedia content.