SPAM

[Pints]

Another bout of spam in GG this morning from a new member. Will you be blocking the offending IP address of these sorts of offenders? Mods do a great job but it's getting silly now.

[Jonno02]

Dynamic IP's make IP blocking a bit ineffective.

[Big Al.]

All sorted, he has left the building.

[Pints]

There have been several sub-continent spam attacks over the past couple of days. Surely blocking the IP is a start?

[loose cannon]

Spam has gone into overdrive in general gassing !

[Pints]

Utterly ruining PH. Surely an IP block will slow them down.
Or a 14 day cooling off period after registering.

[Ollie_M]

I have upgraded the security status of the site for the time being whilst this attack persists.

Ollie

[ali_kat]

Pints said:

a 14 day cooling off period after registering.

Is a very good idea full stop!

It's in place for SP&L and The Lounge, why not enforce it across the full board?

[Pints]

Ollie_M said:

I have upgraded the security status of the site for the time being whilst this attack persists.

Ollie

A good start but, as Ali Kat says, why not leave it in place permanently?

[jammy_basturd]

ali_kat said:

Pints said:

a 14 day cooling off period after registering.

Is a very good idea full stop!

It's in place for SP&L and The Lounge, why not enforce it across the full board?

Because the accounts get registered, then logged in a database for future use. Even with the 14 cooling off period, most spam bots will just wait 14 days and then post their spam.

[Ollie_M]

Pints said:

A good start but, as Ali Kat says, why not leave it in place permanently?

Its not as easy as that i'm afraid and i'm not a techie myself, but basically this status prevents any new member until we refresh the 'Trustee Status' manually. It is the most effective way of preventing the spamming email from appearing.
The attacks are quite short and concentrated so we usually go back down to 'defcom 4' after a short time.

The team regularly check and adjust the site security settings to ward of other attacks. As a company that holds a vast amount data we have stringent security criteria that we have to meet and maintain.

[Pints]

Ollie_M said:

Its not as easy as that i'm afraid and i'm not a techie myself, but basically this status prevents any new member until we refresh the 'Trustee Status' manually. It is the most effective way of preventing the spamming email from appearing.
The attacks are quite short and concentrated so we usually go back down to 'defcom 4' after a short time.

The team regularly check and adjust the site security settings to ward of other attacks. As a company that holds a vast amount data we have stringent security criteria that we have to meet and maintain.

I have to ensure PCI DSS compliance for our tens of millions of customers, so I appreciate the efforts.

[ali_kat]

jammy_basturd said:

Because the accounts get registered, then logged in a database for future use. Even with the 14 cooling off period, most spam bots will just wait 14 days and then post their spam.

[Ollie_M]

Thanks Pints.

A site of this size does take a large and dedicated team of developers ( Or Hamsters) to maintain and protect as well as test for new and improved systems that we want to integrate.

Edited by Ollie_M on Saturday 17th October 12:49

[Pints]

The short term cooling off period doesn't seem to be working. They're back in force this morning.


How are this lot getting through if you imposed this only a day or so ago? Clickhere777 is the user.

[Jonny_]

Is there no mechanism for detecting multiple, identical posts in quick succession? That would have caught out the latest spam generator and its blatherings this morning.

[Pints]

Seemingly too few early morning mods about to catch it earlier.

[Shwar25]

I was just heading this way to post the same.

[Ollie_M]

Pints said:

The short term cooling off period doesn't seem to be working. They're back in force this morning.


How are this lot getting through if you imposed this only a day or so ago? Clickhere777 is the user.

I'm not going to pretend I know the answer to this one. Clickhere777 is now banned however I will try and find out how a couple are slipping through the net

[WinstonWolf]

Got another one...