Sabotage!

[Graham W]

Some pimply youth of a hacker appears to have breached the forum's security and invalidated my user name, which is why my posts as Graham W currently show me as a guest.  I have a fairly good idea who it was and think he (it's usually a he) objected to me constantly removing his spam posts and de-registering his account every time he popped up.  I can't do anything about it at the moment as I am temporarily unable to moderate, so will post here as Mk II until it can be sorted out.

[Graham W]

Since Wednesday, ten new spammers have joined our ranks, including several with Russian-language websites and others touting dubious medicines without prescription.  One AnqrnettezeX, who claims to be based in The Gambia, seems to be a fairly prolific spammer and even now is currently online trying to post something on the General Discussion board.  Give up son, you're wasting your time, as your account and all your attempted posts will be obliterated shortly.

[Sea Simon]

Well done GW.  Many thanks for your efforts!

[Jonathan Stuart]

Hi Graham,

I can't restore your old account but I have attached all your previous posts to your new account and have, as far as possible, updated your new account to look like your old account. Let me know if you spot any issues.

Jonathan

[Graham W]

Jonathan,

Thank you very much for your help - I feel fully restored!

[mainecoast]

Those are some bored hackers to go through that sort of trouble for our humble corner of the internet!

Glad to hear you gents were able to fight them back (for now)!

Pete

Corvus.  BC23 hull 37

[Graham W]

Most of the spamming and hacking activity appears to be automated.  For example, one small set of IP addresses with Russian connections (banned a while back) has made more than 100,000 thwarted attempts on the site and another more than 40,000.  A Chinese-based hacker banned about an hour ago has subsequently made over 50 unsuccessful attempts on the site by slightly changing his IP address.  Machine learning hasn't yet taught them that they're wasting their time!