Some readers accessing Malaysiakini are encountering a virus alert, warning that the website carries a possible threat.

The false virus alert is being triggered by advertising banners as a result of an attack on Malaysiakini 's open source application that manages advertising, called ‘Open X’.

Malaysiakini is in the process of taking mitigation steps and cleaning the infected system. Readers can safely view Malaysiakini pages without any threat of infection by the virus.

However, your individual anti-virus software may take some time to reexamine the page and remove the automated virus alert.

Malaysiakini apologises for the technical problem.