Lycos Anti-Spam Site Compromised [Updated]

An anonymous reader writes "Lycos, shortly after producing a screen saver to fight spammers using a DoS-style attack appears to have been hacked. Attempting to download the screen saver from lycos results in this message 'Yes, attacking spammers is wrong, you know this, you shouldn't be doing it. Your ip address and request have been logged and will be reported to your ISP for further action.' Or maybe it's just a joke -- can you ever tell?" Update: 12/01 15:07 GMT by T : According to Lycos, the defacement reports were actually just a hoax.

Comments

Lad Vampire unaffected

[Lost Race]

Lad Vampire is still going strong. It's similar to the Lycos thing but only targets 419 scammers.

MD5 sum as of 11/26

[david_594]

I downloaded the installer on 11/26 when the first /. article came out and the MD5 sum of that file was: 237ee99dc7f35d2e2c0a8640086167bf

Re:"Fighting" spammers

[metlin]

Really well said.

Vigilante style justice does not always work out. For one, you open yourself up to illegal attacks from them, too.

If I legally took a spammer to court and if he DDoSed me, it would only strengthen my case. I have the legal recourse to support my stand.

However, if you did something like what Lycos did, what're you going to tell the judges? They hacked me for hacking them?

As much as I'd love to see spammers get kicked in the nuts, this is not the path to take. It makes us no different from them.

Re:There we go again...

[evilviper]

You're wrong on so many counts here, it's amazing...

The following are clearly completely untrue:

(x) Mailing lists and other legitimate email uses would be affected
(x) It will stop spam for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it
(x) Users of email will not put up with it
(x) Microsoft will not put up with it
(x) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
(x) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's career or business
(x) Jurisdictional problems
(x) Dishonesty on the part of spammers themselves
(x) Countermeasures must work if phased in gradually

All the rest are HIGHLY unlikely to be correct. For instance you suggest this is illegal by selecting several options, yet you haven't pointed to any laws outlawing it.

Re:An alternative and legal idea

[Blitzenn]

BTw, we sell hardware. We do not send out unsolicited email. Your method would wrongfully harm a number of upstanding companies that hate spam too. YOu have to identify which ones are the culprites before your proceed down a road like that.

Wrong.

[blanks]

You dont get the blacklists from lycos.

"The sites targeted will come from blacklists generated by Spamcop and other anti-spam organizations"

http://www.spamfo.co.uk/News/Software/Lycos_anti sp am_screensaver/

From a previous news article I had read lycos is just making it available to download, and marketing it so to speak, but another company developed it, and im guessing since the site is down/comprimised,and that you can not access the black list its hosted somewhere other then lycos. But I could be wrong.