Again With The Attacks
This time they are attacking my log-in system looking to take over my resources, so my host has disabled the log-in file. To get on I have to change file permissions, sign on, and then revert to locking the file.
They are wasting my resources, wasting ‘Net resources, annoying a lot of people, and providing no benefit to anyone, not even themselves. [No different than what NSA et al. are doing, really.]
They are running a script trying to determine user name and password, which will take a very long time on my site and get them noticed, as happened.
I will probably switch back to Spamshield, assuming they have fixed their earlier problem with three updates since I encountered it a week ago, as they also block log-in bots.
This is the price you pay for using a popular CMS program – lots of people trying to break it.
12 comments
I’m creating a second commenting account to use when I can’t use my admin account.
Yes. I’ve been discovering that, and my site isn’t even general knowledge yet! Still, one advantage to having my own VPS (or cloud server) is that I control everything. 🙂
Good luck m8. 🙂
Oh! Speaking the lengths hackers will go… I found this last week and meant to post it! Talk about eye opening! 😐
Bogus cellphone towers found in the US
The resources required are mind boggling!
And these also:
Major cyber attacks hit 5 US banks including JPMorgan
Pentagon confirms that missile defenses are vulnerable to cyber attack
ICREACH program, NSA Search Engine for communications analysis
If those are military cell towers, standards have certainly fallen, because in my day we would have used something like a power pole with a transformer on it, but the ‘transformer’ wasn’t connected to anything. The last thing our antennae looked like was antennae. It could be some outrageously expensive boondoggle sold by a contractor to block cell signals during a bomb threat on the base – to prevent remote detonation by a cell phone trigger.
OTOH, it could be Verizon getting ready to attack its competitors by taking down the cell service to non-Verizon phones. I don’t trust any of them any more. The telcoms are as bad as the new diseased NSA when it comes to hacking and cracking.
Funny you mention Verizon. 🙂 I had a similar thought! Corp. Espionage, taken to new levels! Wouldn’t surprise me either. But this part was very curious:
It is troubling on several levels! HTF could anyone erect a massive cell tower next to a military base, and nobody know anything about it??! Seriously?
Bryan, nobody has actually spotted the physical cell towers. What was spotted was their signal emissions hijacking your connection and kicking you down out of encrypted 3G into unencrypted GSM.
They’re near military bases so it doesn’t surprise me at all. If sh*t goes down on a military base, the military needs to shut down cell phone communications immediately to hinder communications between attackers, and the easiest way is for them to control the tower that provides cell service to the military base to begin with. Since they don’t have to comply with all the various FCC rules (something we have found out to our annoyance here on the West Coast when they continue blatting out noise on the ham radio 70cm band despite no reason to do so given that they have plenty of bandwidth on other bands), they don’t have to limit power — they can give enough power to insure that no “civilian” cell towers can serve the military base.
The way they contract out all of the jobs in intel, no one will ever convince me that the people with the contracts don’t have a second ‘business’ on the side utilizing the power the government gives them.
Steve Bates brought those towers up earlier, Badtux, and I explained that the military doesn’t allow cell tower construction on base, so there a lot of towers just off base to provide coverage. Whatever they are using is located on base and probably does not look like a cell tower for security reasons. The other problem is that it is totally legal and always has been for the military to monitor on-base communications for security purposes. That may be what is being detected, because radio signals don’t obey property lines.
That makes sense Bryan. 🙂 I know we do that here. You do NOT want to use a cell phone/tablet etc for anything remotely sensitive within 5 KM of Victoria Barracks for eg! DSD has some very sophisticated snoopers and a ton of supercomputers under that place (And in Canberra, and a couple other Aus bases). The hilariously ironic thing for me is that the Politicians seriously do not know what a stupid idea it was to move DSD to Canberra (and why it was in Vic in the first place), and within a stones throw of Parliament! LOL I am pretty sure I know where all those Gov “leaks” are coming from! 😉 😀
Just goes to prove… Politicians are stupid. Have no clue about anything. And as well as being the enemy of the public, are their own worst enemies also! 😀
David Harley at welivesecurity.com:
Sounds possible to me, but what do I know…
Kryten, the people who lived next to Eglin AFB discovered that the decision by the companies that make garage door openers to build their systems around an ‘unused’ military frequency was a bad idea. A few years ago there was an exercise on Eglin and garage doors started opening and closing at random intervals all day long.
Steve, that was really my point at your place – if the military is doing it, it won’t look like a cell tower. With all of the stuff that is tested on my local base, I guarantee that they have the ability to block and otherwise interfere with all radio traffic that enters the base. You waive your Fourth Amendment rights if you enter a military installation, and there are signs telling you that at every entry point. This isn’t new, it has always been that way.
What is new is the fact that a lot of things that only used to happen on or around military bases is now happening everywhere, and that isn’t Constitutional or legal. It needs to stop and the people who approve it need to go.
Well, I guess we’ll have to wait to find out for sure. Assuming we ever do! 😉
Looks like someone is willing to put money where mouth is regarding all the WP security problems recently. 🙂 I personally think this is a good idea worth trying.
An Open Letter to the WordPress Community: Let’s Solve Security Once and For All
Yeah… Well, I dunno about solving it “once and for all”! LOL But if they make it better than it is, that will be a start! 😀
Still, read the above to see an endemic problem to security issues! Ie. “Keep your mouth shut!” That does *NOT* help!
As Vladimir says:
I have been attacked twice in a month and it was my host, not WordPress, that notified me. WordPress issued an upgrade, but they didn’t issue a warning about the existence of a problem. Having already started the Beta release process for version 4, people needed to be told why it was necessary to update to 3.92 ASAP, but all WordPress did was send out a release notice.
Get a grip. You don’t have to explain how to do something when you want to warn people about a problem. Tell them about the effects because that is what is important to everyone. Only a minority of users would even understand what was being discussed if you waste time covering the cause. The cause is a bunch of jerks – every time that covers the cause. Tell people there is a problem and what they can do to protect themselves.