Was Auctiva Hacked?

There is a buzz going around today about Auctiva being hacked and possibly spreading malicious software.  People trying to access Auctiva with the Firefox browser are receiving warnings of malware and virus threats.  Google is also warning that Auctiva is a dangerous site in their search results.   A friend of mine called a little bit ago to ask the question of the day...Was Auctiva Hacked?  The short answer right now seems to be that no one knows, or at least no one is posting any real answers yet.

For those who might not know, Auctiva is a very handy third party site that makes listing on eBay a lot easier.  They offer free hosting of multiple photos and just generally have a more user friendly interface for putting up listings (in my opinion) than what eBay offers.  My friend said that when he tried to get to the Auctiva website using his Firefox browser he received warnings that visiting the site could harm his computer.  It just so happens that I was not using Auctiva at all today, so I did not see the Auctiva virus warnings myself.  Personally, I'm staying away for the time being, but I did start Googling for information regarding the hacking of Auctiva.  I'm not including any virus warning screen shots because I'd rather not head over there right now.  Call it paranoia, but I'll wait to get more information about what is happening and see if Auctiva is taking any action to notify people about a virus problem or malicious software.

What I found when I Googled "Was Auctiva Hacked?" was that several other people were getting the warnings, not only from Firefox, but also from Google during searches on Auctiva.  It seems that the Google results page will not let you go there and that you have to choose to by-pass the Firefox warning to enter.  That seems unwise to me.  Googling "auctiva" did indeed bring up the listings with a malware warning (but I didn't try to follow the link).

I also have read that some people did ignore the virus warnings and went on to the Auctiva forums to find that the subject was being addressed but that maintenance was causing a profound slowing down of the website.  It is often slow on Sundays anyway with the heavy listing activity that occurs, so I imagine it is creeping right about now.  One poster on a forum I visited did say that they visited and ended up with a virus, but I can't say if they were being truthful or not.  As of now, Auctiva seems to be staying quiet on the subject of malicious software.

Personally, I'm staying away until they get things sorted out.  If Auctiva was hacked and there is some type of malware situation going on, it should be all over blogs by tomorrow and I would expect some kind of statement from Auctiva regarding the situation.  Use your own judgement and post if you hear anything new about Auctiva getting hacked.

As an aside, my friend also said he saw a posting in which someone brilliantly figured out that you could access Auctiva if you just use Internet Explorer instead.  Someone actually thanked that person for the tip.  Unbelievable.  FYI for IE users:  dodging a virus warning by using Explorer probably isn't  that great of a work-around.