Banned Users
Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 3:00 pm
Hello All
My I please apologise to all readers who suddenly found themselves banned from myTobago between approximately 2:20pm and 2:35pm this afternoon.
It is a sad fact of life that websites are increasingly facing more and more hacking and spam attacks. We still get an average of two bogus account registrations PER DAY. We are also getting an increasing amount of forum hacking attacks, plus attempts to gain entry to the administration areas of the site.
I use this site to develop protection systems that I can then utilise on client sites. While making some modifications this afternoon, I banned myself intentionally, in order to test the system, but inadvertently banned everyone else too. Thanks to the nine readers who reported the problem within the 15 minutes concerned. I'm sorry to have alarmed you - it was absolutely nothing that you did, just a bxxx-up by me.
While on the subject, I must apologise to American readers who have fallen foul of this problem. I am operating a very low-tolerance approach to hacking and/or attempts to steal content from the site. Three strikes from any specific webserver and they're out. Over 50% of all hacking attempts are coming from the United States and I'm currently banning American ISPs at a rate of around 2-3 a week. The worry is that at this rate, I can imagine that myTobago will be unavailable to most American readers within a year. Sorry, guys, but until your service providers tighten systems and stop allowing spamming and anti-social behaviour, I'm not prepared to waste my time worrying about the security of our systems and spend time deleting accounts and spam marketing messages. Offending servers will be treated exactly the same as other offenders, who primarily come from Ukraine, Russia, Nigeria, Korea, Belarus, Cambodia, Moldova and Israel.
My I please apologise to all readers who suddenly found themselves banned from myTobago between approximately 2:20pm and 2:35pm this afternoon.
It is a sad fact of life that websites are increasingly facing more and more hacking and spam attacks. We still get an average of two bogus account registrations PER DAY. We are also getting an increasing amount of forum hacking attacks, plus attempts to gain entry to the administration areas of the site.
I use this site to develop protection systems that I can then utilise on client sites. While making some modifications this afternoon, I banned myself intentionally, in order to test the system, but inadvertently banned everyone else too. Thanks to the nine readers who reported the problem within the 15 minutes concerned. I'm sorry to have alarmed you - it was absolutely nothing that you did, just a bxxx-up by me.
While on the subject, I must apologise to American readers who have fallen foul of this problem. I am operating a very low-tolerance approach to hacking and/or attempts to steal content from the site. Three strikes from any specific webserver and they're out. Over 50% of all hacking attempts are coming from the United States and I'm currently banning American ISPs at a rate of around 2-3 a week. The worry is that at this rate, I can imagine that myTobago will be unavailable to most American readers within a year. Sorry, guys, but until your service providers tighten systems and stop allowing spamming and anti-social behaviour, I'm not prepared to waste my time worrying about the security of our systems and spend time deleting accounts and spam marketing messages. Offending servers will be treated exactly the same as other offenders, who primarily come from Ukraine, Russia, Nigeria, Korea, Belarus, Cambodia, Moldova and Israel.