Topic: IS MAYHEM UNDER ATTACK? (Read 2433 times)

John W E · « **on:** January 17, 2023, 04:27:56 pm »

Hi there, everyone

Has anyone noticed how many guests there are? I do hope Mayhem isn't under attack again - last time I looked there were over 900 guests and now it seems to have dropped into the 800s. At the current time - I think there are only about 10 or 12 of us logged in.

Any thoughts?

John

Capt Podge · « **Reply #1 on:** January 17, 2023, 04:33:24 pm »

Hiya John, yeah, the numbers have been rising since 13th Jan!

Aye,
Ray.

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #2 on:** January 17, 2023, 05:03:41 pm »

Yes ......

Nordlys · « **Reply #3 on:** January 17, 2023, 05:04:10 pm »

That's very observant John. At the moment 838 guests, a huge number yes?
Most online ever 1500+ two days ago, why would that be? I thought it was pretty quiet here just now.
N

Tug Fanatic · « **Reply #4 on:** January 17, 2023, 07:10:28 pm »

Yes 818 visitors when I checked just now before I logged in so 817 + me!

Does the site get any information about who is viewing and/or what they are looking at?

Capt Podge · « **Reply #5 on:** January 17, 2023, 07:35:56 pm »

Yeah, where you saw the number of guests and members just click on that link and the list pops up. At the top right corner of the list you can select everyone or members only or guests only - obviously the members list is by far the smallest!

Ray.

Tug Fanatic · « **Reply #6 on:** January 17, 2023, 08:48:04 pm »

Ok found it now that I have looked when logged in.

It is very hard to believe that, amongst others, the 2006 Model Enhineering Exhibition thread is so interesting to so many visitor particularly as it hasn't had any new posts in many years.

It is even harder to believe that https://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,6264.msg64569.html#msg64569 is so interesting to so many people after 10+ years of inactivity.

I conclude that we probably are under investigation as a possible lead up to an attack.

Capt Podge · « **Reply #7 on:** January 17, 2023, 09:00:31 pm »

Is it possible 'they' are looking for inadvertent inclusion of phone numbers and /or email addresses in the older threads and working upwards in chronological sequence?

Ray.

C-3PO · « **Reply #8 on:** January 17, 2023, 09:46:59 pm »

Guests are surely web bots and search engine indexing crawling all over the site - be surprised if more than 50 5 were real people...

If you Google "Best wishes to Andy Waters aka Taranis " - the very sad news about Andy Waters you get the info in the image below

How do you think Google knows about this as the original post is only a few hours old...

Regards
C-3PO

Baldrick · « **Reply #9 on:** January 18, 2023, 01:58:31 am »

Quote from: Capt Podge on January 17, 2023, 09:00:31 pm

Is it possible 'they' are looking for inadvertent inclusion of phone numbers and /or email addresses in the older threads and working upwards in chronological sequence?

Ray.

perhaps we should lay a bit of a minefield for them and put up a load of posts with dummy e.mail addresses and phone numbers

ps , it's 2.00 am and only me logged in and 220 guests

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #10 on:** January 18, 2023, 02:16:18 am »

We've been 'under attack' for quite some time, possibly;

a. Not many active Forums left these days, therefore we're targeted,
b. Especially after disabling new member registrations,
c. Easy to set a 'bot' to trawl a Forum looking for an 'in', a weakness in security, open links

Tug Fanatic · « **Reply #11 on:** January 18, 2023, 11:45:56 am »

I an definitely not saying that this is in any way connected but I have also recently seen an enormously increased number of spam messages on my email. I don't open them so I don't know what they are after (I can guess!) but I have won so many prizes, my Amazon and Paypal accounts etc are frozen so often and I have so many parcels to be delivered that it is getting silly.

They have got a little cleverer in that they have stopped repeating the email sender address so frequently which means that blocking doesn't work and I am relying on my email provider Spam filter. This works most of the time but on occassion either lets through spam or worse treats non spam as spam. This means that I have to go through the spam messages to find those that arn't. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
The other worrying factor, and much easier to miss, is that I get emails saying that they are from people that I know but who are not always in my address book. When I check the sender they are 30+ character rubbish so they don't get opened either. I now flick up the sender address on every email that I get.

I do run a top anti virus programme and run Malwarebytes monthly. Neither ever finds anything. I would change email provider if it wasn't so daunting.

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #12 on:** January 18, 2023, 12:18:08 pm »

The Model Boats website forum has been plagued by bot false registrations for at least 18 months now. Although disguised, nearly all appear to emanate from Russia or Eastern Europe. There was a large increase when Russia invaded Ukrarine with up to 15 a day. They are all very obvious and can't post without my approval but it is my daily breakfast task to delete them. More recently the numbers have tailed off so perhaps those responsible have been sent to the front!

Unfortunately the forum software is MyTimeMedia legacy code taken over 'as is' by Mortons when the title changed ownership. It works but there are no resources available to develop or amend it and in any case tampering with legacy code can have unfortunate consequences!

Colin

John W E · « **Reply #13 on:** June 11, 2023, 07:52:13 pm »

See those nasty little bots are at it again 400+ guests again. When are these bots going to learn - no good trying to attack a Mayhemmer.

Happy days.

John

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #14 on:** June 11, 2023, 09:36:38 pm »

You don't want to see all the crap spoof emails I get .... from "Mayhem"!

Baldrick · « **Reply #15 on:** June 11, 2023, 09:41:16 pm »

I had a sudden splurge of junk e-mails a month ago . Obvious rubbish from unknown sources . I just let it accumulate in the junk folder and zapped it when I felt minded, It seems to have died down now .

derekwarner · « **Reply #16 on:** June 12, 2023, 12:40:45 am »

No Balrick,,,, [running Norten 360], I delete the Junk folder, then delete the Deleted folder each and every morning ...............Derek

Circlip · « **Reply #17 on:** June 12, 2023, 11:31:33 am »

Same here Dereck but I always check the Junk folder for non junk, I don't open them but despite using the 'Block' function, the same ones appear.

Regards Ian.

KitS · « **Reply #18 on:** June 12, 2023, 02:29:06 pm »

Quote from: Circlip on June 12, 2023, 11:31:33 am

Same here Dereck but I always check the Junk folder for non junk, I don't open them but despite using the 'Block' function, the same ones appear.

Yes, what is the point of a 'Block' function that doesn't actually block?

Circlip · « **Reply #19 on:** June 13, 2023, 09:35:08 am »

Exactly the same as the 'Telephone preference (or NOT) service' that doesn't.

Regards Ian.

John W E · « **Reply #20 on:** September 19, 2023, 11:28:18 am »

here we go again ..... those bots are at it ... 690+ guests on here again.... they surely must be sick of reading the same posts

..

John

warspite · « **Reply #21 on:** September 20, 2023, 11:43:19 am »

There all interested in the Tupolev G-5,

Maybe the Ukranians are build stealth versions for use in the black sea

News:

Author Topic: IS MAYHEM UNDER ATTACK? (Read 2433 times)