Do I have a problem?

Recently, both before and after resubscribing to Bitdefender, I've notice websites stopping me prior to entry with captchas. Not sure why. BD software says I'm okay. Today I got a message revealing a bit more about why it's happening. It says,

The website you are visiting is protected and accelerated by Incapsula. Your computer may have been infected by malware and therefore flagged by the Incapsula network. Incapsula displays this page for you to verify that an actual human is the source of the traffic to this site, and not malicious software.

Bitdefender says "you are safe". Do I have problem?

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Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/103259/do-i-have-a-problem

I have promoted you to Level 2. Kindly share a screenshot of the issue you are facing.

Regards

johnmarkp

I gave an exact cut and paste quote of the text. I don't think the graphics of the page would add much. It wasn't a bitdefender page and I'd say it was a result of in incapsula's monitoring of pc's visiting a site they protect, so probably incapsula's message. It stopped me, asked me to click a box to verify I was human, and let me go. I've had this happening a little bit in the last couple months. But this is the first one to give me the textual detail that I posted in my first post. Here is what it said:

I never turn off Bitdefender and I always have updates set to happen automatically to keep me up to date and protected.

Alexandru_BD

Hello @johnmarkp and thanks for elaborating on the issue you are facing. The short answer is no, you don't have a problem. 😃

Based on my findings, Incapsula is a web security and content delivery network service that protects websites from various threats, including DDoS attacks, malicious bots, and other cyber threats. It acts as a security filter between visitors and the website, analyzing incoming traffic to determine whether it is legitimate or potentially harmful. If Incapsula detects suspicious activity, it may block access or require additional verification to confirm that the visitor is a real human rather than a bot or malicious software. So, the message you are getting is not from Bitdefender. The antivirus doesn't find anything malicious on your device because there's nothing there to find in the first place. The message you’re seeing suggests that Incapsula has flagged your network traffic as suspicious, possibly due to one or more of the following reasons:

If you use a VPN, proxy, or dynamic IP address, Incapsula may consider your IP to be associated with bots or automated traffic
If your IP was previously used by someone engaging in suspicious activities, it may be temporarily flagged.
If you send multiple requests to a website in a short time, Incapsula may assume it's bot traffic.

Also, Bitdefender, uses HTTPS scanning and other web protection features that intercept and inspect traffic. Incapsula (like Cloudflare) might see this inspection process as an alteration of the request, triggering some security measures. Now, there are a couple of things to try that may help you get rid of that message.

First, if you’re using a VPN or proxy, disable it and try reloading the website. Then, go to your browser settings and disable any unknown extensions (IF your browser has suspicious extensions or if a s.c.r.i.p.t on your network is making automated requests). Move on to cookies and cache and clear them, as corrupted or flagged cookies may trigger verification. In Bitdefender, you can also turn off the "Encrypted Web Scan" feature temporarily, to check if the website loads properly. If it does, then you have your culprit. "Encrypted Web Scan" can be found under the Online Threat Prevention module.

Finally, see if you can access the website from a different device or network. If the issue is isolated to your PC, it may be software-related. Restarting your router may also help.

That's all I can think of right now. But please do let us know what worked for you.

Regards,

Alex