Good news / bad news

There is a bit of a new problem out there in the ether.

The crackers have come up with a means to get bots around the CAPTCHA and RECAPTCHA verification systems. If you recall, when you registered, there was an image with some letters/words that you had to type in, in order to register. Since the bots couldn't 'read' the images, they couldn't fill in that field on the registration page. That system has now been compromised. So much for the bad news.

As a result, I've just added another measure that will effectively prevent bot registrations. No one will ever see it, but it is there and it is rather sneaky in the way it works. The best part about it? If the crackers find a way to defeat it, we've already got a modification ready that will lock the bots back out.

We're currently blocking Yahoo and Hotmail registrations, but with CAPTCHA being compromised, we anticipate Gmail will start to become an issue. We may have to move to blocking Gmail registrations, as well.

Can you tell I do not like spammers?

To the forum staff - there is a chance of humans registering and then handing off the new account to the spambots for posting. If this happens, move the posts to the appropriate place and I'll go through the list, deleting the offenders.

 

No, you wouldn't be banned. Although we may have to restrict new Gmail registrations, if it becomes an issue.