A note from the co-editor about a rogue item appearing on Newsroom briefly due to a systems issue
Between 3 am and 6 am on Friday an item appeared in an area of this website that had not been commissioned or placed there by Newsroom.
The item, which appeared to be a form of advertising messaging for an online gaming site - but sitting within a Newsroom news story format and carrying my byline - had somehow appeared via the systems of our site administrator, Pagemasters. When discovered, it was sitting in an area accessed by clicking on the 'load more' tab beneath our main home page stories overnight.
The item was deactivated from Newsroom as soon as it was noticed here, having had 16 page views.
Pagemasters, based in Australia, provides the platform on which Newsroom is published. It is urgently investigating how this item could somehow appear on Newsroom via our content management system.
Pagemasters managing director Ant Phillips advises:
"Editorial services provider Pagemasters is investigating how a rogue item came to be published overnight (NZT) on the Newsroom site. The content has been removed from the site.
"I can confirm that one story posted under the byline of Newsroom's co-editor appears to be the result of either an administration error or administration compromise," said Phillips.
"Technicians are looking at site security .. and we are investigating how it came to be posted."
"No other content on the Newsroom site appears to be compromised and a full incident report will be delivered to Newsroom as soon as possible.
Newsroom had no connection, in any way, with the preparation or posting of this material and will continue to seek answers and immediate protections on behalf of our readers. It goes without saying that Newsroom neither endorses nor supports any of the messaging contained in the item.
Newsroom apologises to anyone who saw the item, and to readers generally for this regrettable systems error.
*This note has been updated to report the precise number of page views, and that the item was in Load More when discovered.
