Backlinks from an Association Site

[SteveZero12]

My company is joining an Industrial Association. Part of the membership is a link to our site from theirs. I've found that going to their site triggers a "threat alert" through our company malware detection system and shows a link that may be infected with malware. With all of that said I have (2) questions...

1. Since this is a paid membership, will Google penalize us for having a link to our company from this association's website?

2. Since a link on their site has potential malware issues, should we add our link to their site or could it be harmful to us?

Any helpful advice is appreciated.

[EGOL]

Don't link to them yet.

I would get in touch with the organization right away and let them know about this.

You need to do this before you link to them, because your customers/clients will encounter this problem.  It's also good business for you to help the organization.

I might call them instead of emailing them.  It is possible that their webmaster has an infected computer and an email reply might carry problems.

[dohertyjf]

While I agree with EGOL, I'd also do two more things:

1. Check to see if the same issue happens when going to the organization's site when you are at home or somewhere other than work. It could also be an issue because of your office's security settings.
2. Regarding if Google will penalize you, no. If it's a paid listing (eg you're getting listing only because you paid) then it's a bit more of a grey area, but it's also a legit association and so I wouldn't worry about it to be honest. If you are worried about it, then you could always ask for it to be nofollowed. But as I said, I think this is a case where a followed link is totally fine and no search quality reviewer would bat an eye at it.