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I noticed that we had about a dozen non-posting spammer accounts that registered today. They must have broken the relatively easy security question, so I changed it. I also deleted their accounts, but please be on the lookout for additional spammers (if I don't get to them first).
I noticed I've been getting some over at Big East Fans. I can't believe they would go to such lengths to look up who the current UofL Athletic Director is or who is the new Big East commissioner etc….but more power to them I suppose.
They must have a point man (point robot?) who finds the answer, then it's loaded into a database that others use to register, probably through automated means. My security question here was “at what temperature (Fahrenheit) does water freeze?” I changed the answer to ask for this in Celsius, and they have not registered since. I bet if I checked the logs, I would find plenty of registration errors being made by people after I changed it.
You've got to be kidding me. They have an automated feature that would feed answers to their spambots? It has to be something like that because most of these spammers are Russian and Chinese.
Yes, I do use that, and it does keep some out. However, they also create more and more email accounts through free services, such as gmail, and they self-activate that way. I also use CAPTCHA at registration, so they are bypassing that.I would really like to read an in-depth article on the world of spammer how they operate, how they evolve to meet new challenges, what kind of programs they are using etc. It's always amazed me that they're able to adapt to security measures that people put in their way.
BTW how can you know that there is a spammer in?You noticed the Senate but I feel like Caesar: helpless ... (except historical quotes)
Big East Fans is being pounded by spammers today. I'm changing security questions and adding other spam plugins to try and stem the tide.
The past week or so I experienced the underbelly of the internet. First, my inauguration site succumbed to that DDOS attack. Then, a site that I built for my family's business was compromised when someone was able to modify the means of payment which directed funds sent by Paypal to someone else (presumably in Korea). Then, yesterday I downloaded a piece of software from Download.com and it had a nuisance program attached to it which changed the homepages of my browsers and my add ons. Oh, and on my Ipad I clicked on a bookmark of mine and I was for some reason redirected to some porn app on Itunes. I looked online at a forum where other people were experiencing that same problem of redirections, but they didn't know why it was happening.So anyway, I guess it goes to show you that there are criminals alive and well, ready to strike online. I have thought that if only online criminals put their efforts into legal activities instead of nefarious ones, they could probably be quite productive.
Well once again I have to sing the praises of Ubuntu/Linux. I don't have to worry about that nefarious underbelly since they don't waste their time designing their crap viruses for my OS. But as for the spammers, they are hitting CL hard right now. I've fortified my defenses as best I can. It will only hold them for so long. Banning gmail accounts is probably the easiest thing to do, but that's going to prevent some from signing up who use gmail. But I don't care.
Well you may be singing the praises of Ubuntu/Linux while the underbelly is attacking you while your guard is down. It wasn't my OS that was attacked. In the instance of the Adware, my browsers were attacked – and I think this is a problem people can still experience using Ubuntu (as is suggested in this thread). In the case of the redirection to porn sites, this his my Ipad. Since there are no known Ipad viruses, it may have been a problem which hit my router.Otherwise, these were exploits aimed at my sites online. So yes, even though you may think you are secure because you are using Ubuntu, there are still plenty of things to worry about. Honestly, I don't worry about viruses infecting my Windows desktop very much since I run a pretty tight ship anyway, and viruses are usually easily detectable.
I haven't had a virus since I started using Ubuntu. I don't use antivirus software either. I do use Adblock Plus on Chrome so I never see popups or ads which probably blocks redirects too I suppose.
Wow, why are your'e sites getting nailed so bad? I have the occasional spammer at MHUS but nothing like what you guys describe. Since I started using Disqus for comments I don't even get comment spam anymore, just the occasional spam trackback. Of course, I have not been posting a hole lot lately either since I have been focusing on my IT classes and that may account for some of it, my analytics numbers are down a little too.
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