Security Issues

Always a heightened concern, and I’m still trying to sort out the best route for the little lock on the web browser thing. While Mercury was Retrograde, though, I experimented with several updated, upgraded features. Some success, some problems, too.

After I plugged in a “geo-fence” protection unit, designed to prevent spurious spam sign-up spam from certain regions, I flipped the on-board captcha thing off. If I was ever wondering about reach and the efficacy of the minimal SEO work I do? No question, now.

Within hours of switching the security parameters, allowing for sign-ups without the captcha thing, “Check here, I am not a Robot,” I had a dozen or more spam “free” sign-ups. The invalid gmail addresses, and random letter names, kind of obvious, plus, never logging in, just signing up?

It’s merely spam, of the robot variety, and what I was pleased to see, as if there is an upside to pernicious side of the web, is that I was found that quickly — as soon as I dropped one kind of defense. Means someone has a machine tapping the side of the box, just waiting.

The “geo-fence” is for a more dedicated and possibly more pointed kind of spammer, and I’ll average a few of those in a month, which, all being totaled up? Good numbers. It means a live human with some understanding of Web English, and the visual acuity to read the grey-out letters in the captcha, means one went far enough to invest human capital in getting the address.

The majority of those are from IP addresses that originate in one of two area, China or Russia.

So the purely automated material, that’s from more local addresses, but the more pernicious, with human capital invested, is from further afield.

Longevity at a single address, and the basic SEO work I tend to favor, all of that adds up to — it’s obvious — good exposure.

It’s a good problem to have. Why I tend to suggest managed sites, these days.

Security Issues