Jamie Oliver website hit by malware for a third time

Thinking hard: Jamie Oliver's website has been hit by malware for a third time in four months

The website of British TV chef, Jamie Oliver has been hit for a third time by malware that potentially infects the computers of visitors to the site.

It is the third attack on JamieOliver.com in four months.

The security company that found the exploit, Malwarebytes says the attack, which redirects users to malicious software, is similar to the previous two.

A spokesperson for Jamie Oliver said they were working "to find the issue".

Password stealer

Malwarebytes says the problem was caused by a link on the site redirecting users to what appears to be a compromised website that contains links to download the malicious code.

Victims without adequate security against such attacks could then find their PCs are compromised with a program running in the background which scans for and steals passwords, sending them on in a report to criminals behind the scam without the users' knowledge.

"The team in charge of Jamie Oliver's website has acknowledged the issue and is taking steps to remediate this problem once and for all," the security company told the BBC.

"Obviously no-one in charge of a website likes to see malware come back time and time again. Website malware is a different beast to Windows-based malware.

"The problem is that often people will get rid of the obvious signs (the symptoms)... but not what caused it in the first place."

Jamie Oliver's official website gets 10 million visitors a month

"We've implemented daily.. malware detection scans, also an industry leading web application firewall to protect against all common security attacks.. which has been blocking numerous hacking attempts," said a spokesperson for the website.

"We're working with a number of security companies to find the issue once and for all. We're also running daily manual checks which have detected and cleaned a number of threats although it's important to note that we have had no reports from any users that have been put at risk."

Malwarebytes said the best way web users could protect themselves from becoming a victim of such attacks was to keep their security software up-to-date.