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Anti-Spammers DDoSed Out Of Existence

Posted by timothy on from the calls-for-punitive-measures dept.

Anonumous Coward writes "Not one, but two anti-spam services announced their closure yesterday due to DDoS attacks, massive Joe jobs, threats, and the total lack of interest shown by law enforcement. monkeys.com pulled the plug at midnight with an announcement that makes you think of a suicide note. Short time later compu.net went the very same way. So, when will we see a distributed RBL that can stand up to distributed attacks?"

11 of 677 comments (clear)

  1. The Heavy Hitters Are Still Around by Nintendork · · Score: 5, Informative
    So, when will we see a distributed RBL that can stand up to distributed attacks?

    I'd never even hear of the two sites that closed down. Personally, I use Spamcop's DNSBL, DSBL, and ORDB.

    -Lucas

    1. Re:The Heavy Hitters Are Still Around by frankie · · Score: 5, Informative

      SpamCop is currently alive, but Julian had to blow a bunch of cash on upgraded servers after getting knocked down a couple months ago. Pretty much every site which offers any sort of blocklist has had several months of continuous DDoS.

    2. Re:The Heavy Hitters Are Still Around by B'Trey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The argument doesn't hold water - the actions of the DDOS mastermind and the blacklister are not equivalent.

      The blacklister provides information to various people who choose, on their own, to say "I do not like what you are doing, Mr. Spammer, and I will not allow you to use MY system to do it."

      The DDOSer says "I don't like what you're doing, and I will not allow you to use YOUR system to do it."

      --

      "The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.

  2. probable cause by poison_reverse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    why cant the goddamn authorities tie in motive with these attacks and go after the spammers who are obviously promoting/funding these attacks?

    --
    _+_+__+_+_+_+_+_+_+++
    when i moo u moo - just like that
  3. Look on the bright side... by emacnabber · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... atleast they didn't blow up blow up their servers.

  4. Re:Double-edged sword by aphr0Scorp · · Score: 5, Funny

    You, sir, are a hero. Not only did you avoid reading the article, but you apparently didn't even read the HEADLINE!

  5. Excellent idea! by DukeyToo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Thats actually an *excellent* idea. Not really SETI@Home though, more like peer 2 peer technology.

    Why not kill 2 birds with one stone - promote a valid use of p2p, which removes some of the RIAA threat, while simultaneously frustrating spammers.

    --
    Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use - Mark Twain
  6. Here's what cracks me up by Rogerborg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We've had a succession of Washington suits yakking on about Information Security, and Cyber War and The Great Potential Threat To Our Infrastructure, and yet when DDoS attacks actually happen, what do they do?

    You guessed it. Squat.

    There's no votes and no budget in actually fighting crime. There's plenty of capital to be made in selling up the threat, and in promising that you'll fix it, given just a little more time in office, and a slightly larger personal empire.

    What I'd like to see is our Dictator of Homeland Security pinned down and made to explain why he's not doing something about the attacks that are happening now. If we can't defend monkeys.com from a DDoS from malicious assholes, how does he expect to believe that we're able to defend safety or economic critical infrastructure from the same kind of attack launched by the truly malevolent?

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    1. Re:Here's what cracks me up by chabotc · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Here's a thought..

      Suppose that the DDoS zombies used use a internet name instead of IP addresses.. Why not change the DNS for monkeys.com & compunet to a nice NSA or FBI address range

      Then sit back and wait for this law-enforcement stuff to finaly kick in

  7. Good riddance by PincheGab · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Having been unfortunate enough to be assigned an IP block from a previous spammer and having gone through the subsequent ass-kissing I had to do to a black list maintainer that absolutely refused to remove us from the the list, I say the less blacklists there are, the better.

    I'm sorry but some of these list maintainers are anal, (VERY) self-righteous, awful people who will not listen, not even when the person at the other end of the line is polite, patient, and takes a polite and amicable approach to the issue of getting removed from the blacklist (and punches a pillow after the phone calls and emails instead of being rude to the person).

    I'm sorry but with the hell I had to go through to get removed (too much unwarranted ass-kissing, too much putting up with the "I'm only a volunteer" crap) I am only glad to see these anal a-holes go.

  8. I won't miss email black lists. by Vic+Metcalfe · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm sorry for the trouble these guys have had, but I've had more trouble with black lists then benefit. I've been black listed many times for stupid reasons. Like one of the sign-off's mentioned, I've had @mydomain.com used to send spams, had to handle the bounces and then been blacklisted on top of that. I've had spam link to a page I host even though the spam wasn't advertising the page, it was using the page to support the sale of its product. The page was about water safety, and posted by someone with no connection to the spammers. I've twice been blacklisted and once had UUNet filter my IP allocation because users had uploaded old vulnerable versions of FormMail.pl to their web sites and spammers found and abused the hole. Both times I had found and removed the offending script before getting shut down, only to be blacklisted/filtered AFTER fixing the problem.

    As you might have guessed I have no love for RBL type services. I think their hearts are in the right place, but I'm tired of getting caught in the cross-fire. Since at some point, in order to benefit spammers have to be contacted by consumers, law enforcement should be able to track them down. I'd love to see that sort of thing become common. I can't see a technological solution even with a complete overhaul of how email works. I like the fact that a stranger can email me if they like. I just want to see legal limitations on that contact to prevent spam.