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

No surprise

[JuggleGeek]

I'm not surprised. Spammers, phishers, and other scammers have obviously been hiring geeks to write software for them for some time. Without that, they wouldn't have armies of owned machines ready to send out their spam for them, etc.

The Lycos screensaver has gotten a lot of press, and could certainly put a crimp in the spammers pocketbooks, and spammers aren't honest, so why wouldn't they hack Lycos?

Re:No surprise

[kasper37]

Hiring geeks? How do you know it's not geeks themselves doing the spamming? Just because someone is smart and has networking/programming know how doesn't mean that they are immune to the draw of easy money.

Lad Vampire unaffected

[Lost Race]

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

Re:Attack!

[FREELZEE]

WTF... i can't tell if it's slashdot attacking these links or the spammers screwing them up. i guess we'll never know

Re:Simple Way To Counter Lycos Threat

[Streyeder]

So, what happens when Lycos points their DNS servers right back at them? Maybe it would create a cyber time-space vortex that would suck websites back into the past? ;) An internet wormhole of sorts... Ok, time to turn off DS9 and get back to hw...

People still download screensavers?

[Prairiewest]

I'm amazed that Lycos thinks this will actually work, simply from the fact that I do not know anyone that has downloaded a "screen saver" for their computer in the last year.

It used to be all the rage... yes, starting with AfterDark decades ago, and finally culminating in WebShots a few years ago. But does anyone really do this nowadays? Seriously?

Maybe if it showed a random "babe/hunk of the day" while doing its nasty work it would be downloaded by more people...

Re:"Fighting" spammers

[Nykon]

Technology moves much faster then any of the law making parts of our government. A blanket law could harm innocent people, look at the rampant abuse of the DMCA? It had good intentions but was too broad and was abused for other purposes.

Heck, even people in the infosec community have enough trouble keeping up with spammers from a defensive corporate security aspect, more less waiting for the government to do enough research to put together a law that may or may not be valid by the time it is voted on and put into action.

Unfortunetly I think the spammers know this, and the best we can hope for is maybe stiffer fines. Then again with the money most of the big guys make off "email marketing", chances are they can afford a good enough lawyer to get them off the hook or a fine that will barely dent their pocket.

Let's not forget the fact that laws are only valid for US spammers. You get a spammer using zombies or even servers in a country that could care less about American policy and laws, and all we have to fall back on is "technology' to aide us.

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

hopefully it's written better than that

[frovingslosh]

I have not downloaded the screen saver and don't know how it works, but it would be a no-brainer to have written it to get it assignments when it goes active. After all, it certainly has Internet access (or it's can't run up the spammer's usage anyway). So it just has to check a site, get one or more assignments, and start running up the spammer's bill. Not a bad concept.

The spammer's response is a strong indication that it's a pretty good idea, and one they really don't like and see as an actual threat to them.

An alternative and legal idea

[cliffski]

Does this make sense? Ive seen it suggested somewhere:

One of the problems with spam is all the companies selling software that 'sends ten million emails a day'. Given that this is hardly likely to be for legitimate use (does your company have 10 million subscribers?) heres a way to hurt their pockets.

Go to google
Search for bulk email software
Click once on every google ad on the RHS.
Repeat each day.

Every click costs the spam (sorry *direct marketing*) company maybe $0.05. If everyone on slashdot did it, these companies would be hit bigtime. Their ad budgets would be used up, and their conversion rate would be zero.

Its not going to rid us of spam, but it IS one way to fuck up the assholes that make this stuff so easy.

Cost more than a nickle my friend

[Blitzenn]

Those ads cost more than a nickle to click on my friend. Depending on the populatiry of the search, one click can cost as much as $20.00, (that I have seen myself). My company uses this advertising method and it has been successful so far. Our per click advertising average is about $13.00. That's definatelyy per click too. I am sure other people who use this form of google ad can confirm this.

Re:Attack!

[harrkev]

You certainly have a point. If an ISP gets paid to host a spamvertised web site, they do not care. All of the spam comes either from off-shore servers or zombies. This does not affect the ISP. The Lycos approach is not making this the ISP's problem.

The thing that totally bugs me is that ISPs are not cracking down more on zombies. The terms of service should state that the ISP can read your outgoing mail if you send more than 500 emails a day. They can then shut down your connection if you are sending spam. If all of the zombies were cut off, spam would likely be reduced by 80%.

I downloaded and installed the screensaver a Monday night. I like it. I certainly do not think that this is the perfect solution. But at least is may accomplish something! Every other spam tactic that I have seen to stop the source has amounted to a big fat nothing. Filtering you mail still works, but is a pain.