{"id":122,"date":"2010-10-11T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T04:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hypnosisinmedia.com\/blog\/?p=122"},"modified":"2010-10-10T11:07:17","modified_gmt":"2010-10-10T15:07:17","slug":"the-proliferation-of-spam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hypnosisinmedia.com\/blog\/122\/the-proliferation-of-spam\/","title":{"rendered":"The Proliferation of \u2018Spam\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cSpam, spam, spam, spam \u2026 Spam! Love\u00adly spam!\u201d \u2014 Mon\u00adty Python\u2019s Fly\u00ading Cir\u00adcus \u2014 The \u2018Spam\u2019 sketch<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The pro\u00adlif\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion of \u2018spam\u2019 (and oth\u00ader atten\u00addant attempts to access, cor\u00adrupt or oth\u00ader con\u00adscript web\u00adsites) is a con\u00adstant pain for any\u00adone. As I write this, the blog has been in action for about eight weeks and has accu\u00admu\u00adlat\u00aded over 170 com\u00adment spam attempts. (That alone is some\u00adwhat dis\u00adcour\u00adag\u00ading, as, if I dis\u00adcount my own com\u00adment replies, that is almost 15x the num\u00adber of actu\u00adal com\u00adments the blog has received.) How\u00adev\u00ader, my Word\u00adPress instal\u00adla\u00adtion is con\u00adfig\u00adured to auto\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly scan any com\u00adment and sequester any that appear to be spam for my approval. It also means that any post, spam or not, will have to wait until I can approve it until I can imple\u00adment a bet\u00adter method for han\u00addling com\u00adments, one that will take a lit\u00adtle investigation.<\/p>\n

(Its not like the spam is real\u00adly very intel\u00adli\u00adgent. One sim\u00adply scat\u00adters a num\u00adber of ran\u00addom let\u00adters, some\u00adtimes in a for\u00adeign alpha\u00adbet, around a URL. Anoth\u00ader repeats a rather gener\u00adic greet\u00ading. The most amus\u00ading one was one that actu\u00adal\u00adly men\u00adtioned \u2018hip\u00adno\u00adsis\u2019 but gave as their URL the web\u00adsite of a male-enhance\u00adment drug in German.)<\/p>\n

I am using the best spam pre\u00adven\u00adtion meth\u00adods I can find, some that should stop spam\u00admers even before they even get to the web\u00adsite, but its an ongo\u00ading bat\u00adtle. Its just so easy for some\u00adone with lit\u00adtle or no knowl\u00adedge or com\u00adput\u00ader expe\u00adri\u00adence to get a spam\u00adming toolk\u00adit and a list of address\u00ades from a black-hat web\u00adsite and start spam\u00adming away. Its even worse when idiot peo\u00adple let their sys\u00adtems get com\u00adpro\u00admised and become unwit\u00adting tools to act as a proxy army to expand on the efforts of just one spam\u00admer or a whole array of unsa\u00advory activities.<\/p>\n

And still there is spam. It is a con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00ading bat\u00adtle. And one that I will con\u00adtin\u00adue to fight. Its not lim\u00adit\u00aded here: my com\u00adpa\u00adny web\u00adsite peri\u00adod\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly will have a num\u00adber of attempts to access a non-exis\u00adtent blog or any oth\u00ader pop\u00adu\u00adlar type of web pack\u00adage: I designed the web\u00adsite to report any attempts that return a 404 (not found) error and there have been sev\u00ader\u00adal times when it report\u00aded sev\u00ader\u00adal attempts (the record is actu\u00adal\u00adly 137 attempts from the same web address at all rough\u00adly the same time) try\u00ading dif\u00adfer\u00adent sequences of URLs in the vain attempt to find some\u00adthing to exploit. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly for them, and for\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly for me, there wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

And what can be done? From a per\u00adson\u00adal stand\u00adpoint, pro\u00adtec\u00adtion: use an anti-virus pro\u00adgram and make sure it is always up-to-date. In fact, make sure your entire sys\u00adtem is up-to-date with the lat\u00adest cor\u00adrec\u00adtions, most of which nowa\u00addays are to close holes in the oper\u00adat\u00ading sys\u00adtem that can be tak\u00aden advan\u00adtage of.<\/p>\n

But most of all, use good sense. Remem\u00adber that there are peo\u00adple out on the Inter\u00adnet who will, if giv\u00aden the slight\u00adest oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adty, will take advan\u00adtage of it. Don\u2019t let them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSpam, spam, spam, spam \u2026 Spam! Love\u00adly spam!\u201d \u2014 Mon\u00adty Python\u2019s Fly\u00ading Cir\u00adcus \u2014 The \u2018Spam\u2019 sketch The pro\u00adlif\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion of \u2018spam\u2019 (and oth\u00ader atten\u00addant attempts to access, cor\u00adrupt or oth\u00ader\u2026\u21d2 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cThe Pro\u00adlif\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion of \u2018Spam\u2019 \u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-website-maintenance"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Proliferation of 'Spam' - Hypnosis in Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hypnosisinmedia.com\/blog\/122\/the-proliferation-of-spam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Proliferation of 'Spam' - Hypnosis in Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cSpam, spam, spam, spam \u2026 Spam! 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