Antispam advocate succumbs to spammers

[TripleRLtd]

Bluefrog, which I started using a month ago, or so, has shut down....or has BEEN shut down due to the actions of spammers worldwide!

By Greg Sandoval, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: May 17, 2006, 6:06 PM PT
A prominent crusader against unsolicited e-mail ads withdrew from an escalating cyberwar with spammers on Wednesday after his Web site and numerous others came under a massive retaliatory attack.

Blue Security, a company that provided antispam software and was widely praised for orchestrating a kind of do-it-yourself campaign to spam spammers, has "ceased all antispam operations," said Sandra Fathi, a spokeswoman for the company.

The surrender comes after the company's Web site, along with those of many of its partners, were hobbled by a denial-of-service attack earlier this month. The DoS attack, which used thousands of commandeered computers to overload the sites' servers with traffic, is believed to have originated with one Russia-based spammer, Fathi said.

The brazen show of power by the spammer is reflective of the defiant nature of these kinds of rogue advertisers. Almost as old as the Internet, unsolicited e-mail continues to swamp e-mail in-boxes and to clog servers, even as law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies have tried to stop the practice.

Eran Reshef, Blue Security's CEO, thought he had the answer. He encouraged half a million of the company's customers to send replies to the spam they received. The combined traffic overloaded the spammers' servers and crippled their ability to send e-mails. This resulted in some well-known spam companies agreeing to stop e-mailing Blue Security's customers.

Rest of article:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6073625.html

I just did a search on why Blue was no longer reporting spam and found I couldn't access their website. I suspected DDoS...and it turns out I was right. I DID NOT think it would be so bad that they would capitulate.
DAMN! It really sux when you realize the power that these spammers possess, to take down an entire backbone. This criminal activity is becoming increasingly negative, and should be worrisome to all. Here is a short list from a blog about this whole situation, after the original attack earlier this month:

Lets clear up a few points:
Spamming is illegal in most countries.
Launching Distributed Denial of Service attacks is illegal in every country.
Operating a botnet is illegal.
Compromising systems around the world in order to install and operate botnet software is illegal.
Owning a botnet that is large enough to crush one of the world’s most reliable ISP’s for blogging?
Yep, its illegal. It should also point out to you naysayers exactly who we are talking about here.

The spammers have a botnet than can crush google.
they also have access to the United States Critical core routers because they were able to alter BGP peering points in a way to blackhole Blue Security to be accessible to just Israeli addresses.
We are talking about a criminal enterprise here folks, not some whiny activities by script kiddies.

I, for one, absolutely agree with this. I am truly shocked that Blue was effectively 'taken down' by a network of spammers.
WTF????

[Tecumseh]

I guess it's time to call out the "Unit" and have these spammers whacked!

[TripleRLtd]

I'm none too sure what your intent was here Tec, but mine was not to make light of this!
Whether or not you realize it, this is damn serious.
At least in my opinion it is.
Think about this:
...we "HAD" an anti-spam start-up taken down by the spammers, and most IT people are or were fighting amongst ourselves over the supposed ethics of fighting spammers!~!!
Take this particular blog and blogger for example:
http://q.queso.com/archives/001917
I mean, who is the real 'villain' here? Us or them?
WHY must we fight amongst ourselves for some sort of Utopia on the Internet that DOES NOT exist.
We NEED to realize what is wrong, and who the 'bad" ones really are.
But hey...that's just my op....

[Tecumseh]

Lighten up, dude. I was a member of Blue Security almost since its inception and am furious over what has transpired. If I had an opportunity to hurt these little SOB's I would do so in a New York minute.

[Mayet]

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~ddgarcia/spam.html

Monty Python's Spam sketch

Scene: A cafe. One table is occupied by a group of Vikings with horned helmets on. A man and his wife enter.Man (Eric Idle): You sit here, dear.Wife (Graham Chapman in drag): All right.Man (to Waitress): Morning!Waitress (Terry Jones, in drag as a bit of a rat-bag): Morning!Man: Well, what've you got?Waitress: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam;Vikings (starting to chant): Spam spam spam spam...Waitress: ...spam spam spam egg and spam; spam spam spam spam spam spam baked beans spam spam spam...

[Platypus]

Remember that the compromised BlueFrog software is now a security risk, remove it from your computer and make sure anyone you have introduced to BlueFrog also knows the situation. Remove any links you may have on websites, as supporters of BF are now targets for DOS attacks.

[El_Squid]

It's just a reminder that the spam industry generates megabucks for some rather unscrupulous individuals, who do not like people messing with their cash cow. It also shows how hard it is to be effective against an unrestricted, immoral enemy when you are bound by rules and codes of conduct. BlueFrog was operating within the bounds of "civilized" net behavior, while spammers can do whatever they darn well please. There are some very ugly trolls lurking beneath the "information super highway's" bridges.

[TripleRLtd]

Remember that the compromised BlueFrog software is now a security risk, remove it from your computer and make sure anyone you have introduced to BlueFrog also knows the situation. Remove any links you may have on websites, as supporters of BF are now targets for DOS attacks.

Bingo. Excellent advice...as that was the first thing that I did, too.
No offense Tec...but this gets my Ire up.

btw:
WTF was this moved to Tech News where NOONE ever comes and/or views anything? I put this in the Lounge...the ONLY semi-active forum left here to generate debate and attention. It was NOT the wrong forum to put it in. And then, to add further insult, the mod makes light of the situation.
All I can say is NO WONDER.....


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(Edit by Mayet)
If you don't like choices made, YOU can always choose to go eslewhere too. This thread belongs in Tech News and will stay here. Please keep your "Ire" in check, especilly when dealing with other members.

Teks comment and reply was legitimate and in his words. Lighten up dude. Go outside smell some roses.

[rgharper]

btw:
WTF was this moved to Tech News where NOONE ever comes and/or views anything?

Dude, I come here every day and read every thread that doesn't have the word "CONSOLE" in it.

Judging from the responses so far it looks like most of the other regulars do so also.

[slgrieb]

Could be wrong, but I think most people plagued by spam are those who just haven't taken effective precautions. Mosquito's aren't going away anytime soon so I use repellent.

There are very effective filters and blockers and which don't cost a thing. Of the 100 or so emails I get daily 30 or so are spam. My ISP has free junk mail filtering and my controls are set to High, so almost no trash (well apart from vendor mail) reaches my inbox. I use Thunderbird for my email client, so even the odd bit of sludge that makes it through my ISP usually ends up in the Junk folder. Of course for Enterprise users, there are different solutions.

Sorry, we aren't going to kill spam or spyware. There are just too many people who keep sending in their money and fueling the engines.