We are being bugged.. !!

[Scrumpy]

Online today..

42 guests 0 users 3 spiders.!!!!!
 3 spiders !!! 

Creepy....

[klondike]

Quite a lot of those "guests" are almost certainly spiders too

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler

I've ordered some of this....

[Vlad]

I suck them up with the shark

[klondike]

The spurious registrations and attempted registrations are still going strong. A lot of those bots will be showing as guests too. Just deleted a load more ids.

I wonder if PF is getting them too. This is the supposed user count there at the moment
Forum Stats
771423 Posts in 32075 Topics by 7300 Members.

[Mups]

I don't understand this sort of stuff.   Is there anything we're supposed to  be doing or not doing? 

[JBR]

I don't understand this sort of stuff.  Is there anything we're supposed to  be doing or not doing? 

I don't know, but I tend not to respond to new members just to be on the safe side, at least until someone else has first!

[klondike]

These things are scripts (programs) running on servers connected to the internet. They read or interact with websites for a variety of reasons such as..

Google and other search engine bots read the pages and save keywords and other information in their databases in such a way that when people search for something they can return a list of websites related to the topic requested.

Spambots will create fake user IDs on forums and social media sites in order to post messages linking to a variety of sites or perhaps making or replying to political points.

Malicious bots seek out security weaknesses in websites and exploit them often to plant viruses which can infect visitors to those sites or maybe simply deface them.

Some bots collect data from websites which can be sold on for others to exploit it some way or other.

Website owners will usually welcome search engine bots and be far less keen on others to the extent of simply not responding to them if detected.

[dextrous63]

I don't know, but I tend not to respond to new members just to be on the safe side, at least until someone else has first!

Agreed.  I tend to avoid existing members nowadays, especially when I've got to know them 😬😬😬

[klondike]

The attempted signups continue apace as do the deletions of those that sneak through. So far none have posted so I'm unsure what is going on. I did notice that one of the error messages was the rejection of what is known as an SQL injection attack. I only noticed one amongst the many spam user rejections. They are typical malicious bot tactics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection

https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_injection.asp

[JBR]

The attempted signups continue apace as do the deletions of those that sneak through. So far none have posted so I'm unsure what is going on. I did notice that one of the error messages was the rejection of what is known as an SQL injection attack. I only noticed one amongst the many spam user rejections. They are typical malicious bot tactics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection

https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_injection.asp

All I can say is thank you to you and any others who have the knowledge and skill to deal with such things, because I don't even have the faintest idea even what all of that means, let alone dealing with it.

[klondike]

The forum code and using Cloudflare as proxy do the heavy lifting. All I do is maintain backups to restore the board should it get hacked, tut tut over the spam signup attempts and delete the successful ones. They'll move on eventually.

[Vlad]

The forum code and using Cloudflare as proxy do the heavy lifting. All I do is maintain backups to restore the board should it get hacked, tut tut over the spam signup attempts and delete the successful ones. They'll move on eventually.

✔️ thanks mate

[dextrous63]

If you were to hide the forum from anyone other than actual members Klondy, would that prevent/reduce the number of bots trying to sign up?  Just curious.

[Raven]

There's been two new names in the newest member slot today already. One first thing, that's now gone and been replaced by Robertemuts. Both joined today.

[klondike]

Bit more than that. Extract from error log...

Today at 02:58:00 PM
Your email address needs to be validated before you can login. - Ramonquish
Today at 02:02:50 PM
Your email address needs to be validated before you can login. - Charleshax
Today at 01:47:55 PM
Your request was denied as your email, username and/or IP address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam database
Today at 01:45:58 PM
Your request was denied as your email, username and/or IP address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam database
Today at 01:39:06 PM
Your email address needs to be validated before you can login. - Frankwax
Today at 01:21:20 PM
Your email address needs to be validated before you can login. - Mariomup
Today at 01:16:58 PM
Your email address needs to be validated before you can login. - Georgeblemi
Today at 12:50:05 PM
Your request was denied as your email, username and/or IP address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam database
Today at 12:50:05 PM
Your request was denied as your email, username and/or IP address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam database
Today at 12:24:40 PM
Your request was denied as your email, username and/or IP address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam database
Today at 12:18:49 PM
Your request was denied as your email, username and/or IP address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam database
Today at 12:17:19 PM
Your request was denied as your email, username and/or IP address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam database
Today at 12:10:44 PM
Your request was denied as your email, username and/or IP address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam database
Today at 12:07:23 PM
Your request was denied as your email, username and/or IP address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam database
Today at 12:01:27 PM
Your email address needs to be validated before you can login. - Frankjoymn
Today at 11:43:57 AM
Your request was denied as your email, username and/or IP address is listed in the Stop Forum Spam database
Today at 11:27:02 AM     

Memberlist...

266 JosephEquag JosephEquag [email protected] 31.173.80.49 Never 0
265 Josephphili Josephphili [email protected] 31.173.80.80 Never 0
264 Gregoryatrom Gregoryatrom [email protected] 94.25.170.49 Never 0
263 Robertmon Robertmon [email protected] 31.173.86.74 Never 0
262 CliftonBer CliftonBer [email protected] 178.176.74.207 Never 0
261 WilliamSuigh WilliamSuigh [email protected] 178.176.74.207 Never 0
260 KennethImpup KennethImpup [email protected] 178.176.75.189 Never 0
259 DonaldNefly DonaldNefly [email protected] 94.25.172.68 Never 0
258 Ramonquish Ramonquish [email protected] 178.176.74.129 Never 0
257 PatrickFrubs PatrickFrubs [email protected] 178.176.74.129 Never 0
256 Robertemuts Robertemuts [email protected] 94.25.172.133 Today 0
255 Charleshax Charleshax [email protected] 94.25.171.19 Never 0
254 Frankwax Frankwax [email protected] 178.176.77.183 Never 0
253 Mariomup Mariomup [email protected] 178.176.75.197 Never 0
252 Georgeblemi Georgeblemi [email protected] 94.25.173.29 Never 0
251 WilliamGar WilliamGar [email protected] 178.176.79.75 Never 0
250 ScottSmecy ScottSmecy [email protected] 178.176.77.233 Never 0
249 Frankjoymn Frankjoymn [email protected] 178.176.75.89 Never 0
248 JacobEmity JacobEmity [email protected] 94.25.169.30 Never 0

I deleted a bunch this morning

Highest userid there 266 highest genuine 86 so 180 in the last couple of days.