Blogs are shutting down trackback… hello spam fighters?

Hackers are targeting websites and blogs by exploiting the trackback feature to launch spam attacks, experts have warned.A Filipino online news agency, Newsbreak, was hit with 27,000 pornographic links from its website. The newswire has now suspended the trackback feature of its site, according to reports.

Trackback technology allows blog writers to check who has been viewing and inserting links to their postings. But, this function has been used by spammers, who can connect automatically via this feature to postings on legitimate blogs, in order to direct users to the illegal sites.

The tool can also be used to trigger a denial of service (DDos) attack by overwhelming the blog server.

“Trackback and comment spam, like email spam, are a real pain, and can hit newcomers to blogging as well as established websites like Newsbreak,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

“No one wants to find their blog hammered with nuisance comments. You may also be in danger of damaging your reputation with web visitors. It’s a shame that innovative technology, like trackback, should be so widely abused.”

[SC Magazine UK]

Ok, are they dense? Have the IT guys done NO research? There are many anti-spam tools available. And in numerous cases they are already multi-platform. Below are a few sample tools that are mainly WordPress (Its the best blogging platform for many reasons including the fact there is great support.)

Akismet -The Premier anti-spam tool from Automattic (makers of WordPress) also happens to run on a number of platforms (from Moveable Type to PHPbb), plus they provide and API to port to others.

Bad Behavior – Bad Behavior is the biggest savior on this site. Akismet is currently catching around 2 posts a day that is true spam. Bad Heavior caught some 3000+ over the last 7 days.

Spam Karma – Not installed on this blog. Spam Karma has a huge following and numerous bloggers swear to it. Currently its only written for the WordPress platform.

Others – WordPress lists 61 solutions to fighting spam for the WordPress Platform database. Why can’t a Web Designer upload one plugin, click activate and let one or more of these work? It’s really that easy in most cases.

Tags: Interesting, OpEd, Plug-in, SPAM, Wordpress