Dedicated attack on server 13/10 04:30

tru

No spam button on the forum policy board either

pinkteapot

We have at least all learnt something this morning. !!!!!! isn't in the swear filter.

Reaper

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

The biggest help you can give us is by clicking the spam button on any you see. We realise it's a big ask but if enough do it, it really does help us hugely.

That sounds very inefficient, there are thousands of them. Surely you just need a techie guy to delete the posts from the database. Assuming it's a SQL based database it should be nothing more than a single command, something like:

DELETE FROM Posts WHERE title = 'Money Saving Expert' AND message LIKE '%a bit of how things run smoothly'

redux

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I don't suppose they start work until 9am

And then they've got to work out how to deal with it

It will be reasonably easy, though still tedious. The moderator tools include searching for all of a username's posts, then select and delete them all at once. In fact to save time it's possible to select the posts of each of the usernames and then delete a few hundred at once.

It's also possible to search by IP address, so if there are several usernames registering or posting from the same place, that will produce a useful list of them, then open a new tab.

Given that this is allegedly a UK based business, I doubt they'll have appointed spammers on India and Pakistan mobile networks to do the spam for them, or spambots in China.

It's also possible to search the list of members, sorted by various features including joining time, and the names used so far do seem to have that characteristic spambot gibberish made up look.

So it will take time to clear up, but not quite as much as some would think.

molerat

Looks like the admins are getting on top of it and a couple of boards have been cleared :money:

edit: they seem to be zapping them quite qickly

Pennywise

Surely the new member joining routine should be temporarily suspended to at least stop more postings? He's still joining as a new member even now. Either that, or the entire board be taken down for a short while to give the admin team time to delete the new member IDs?

tru

As fast as some usernames are being PPRed, new ones are popping up

olbas_oil

Pennywise wrote: »

Surely the new member joining routine should be temporarily suspended to at least stop more postings? He's still joining as a new member even now. Either that, or the entire board be taken down for a short while to give the admin team time to delete the new member IDs?

These are not all new members. Some have several years posting history. It is more likely that the username/password files have been brute force cracked, and hundreds of user accounts are compromised. So far I've not seen one of these under my username!

EnigmaPart1

Someones a bit unhappy then

Wyre

olbas_oil wrote: »

These are not all new members. Some have several years posting history. It is more likely that the username/password files have been brute force cracked, and hundreds of user accounts are compromised. So far I've not seen one of these under my username!

Now that is a scary thought.

I have found one Jan 2014 and a July 2013 user so far.