Lycos screensaver to blitz spam servers

Zardon · Nov 29, 2004, 07:33 AM

Lycos Europe has started to distribute a special screensaver in a controversial bid to battle spam. The program - titled Make Love Not Spam, and available for Windows and the Mac OS - sends a request to view a spam source site. When a large number of screensavers send their requests at the same time the spam web page becomes overloaded and slow.

The servers targeted by the screensaver have been manually selected from various sources, including Spamcop, and verified to be spam advertising sites, Lycos claims. Several tests are performed to make sure that no server stops working. Flooding a server with requests so that the server is unable to respond to the volume of requests made - a process known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack - is considered to be illegal.

Lycos believes the program will eventually hurt spammers. 'Spamvirtised' sites typically don't sell advertising, so they have to pay for bandwidth. Therefore more requests means higher bills, Lycos argues.

A spokesman for Lycos in Germany told The Register he believed that the tool could generate 3.4MB in traffic on a daily basis. When 10m screensavers are downloaded and used, the numbers quickly add up, to 33TB of 'useless' IP traffic. Seems Lycos may hurt not just spammers.

register

**dj_stick** · Nov 29, 2004, 08:37 AM

haha DOS'ing spammers

LeanWolf · Nov 29, 2004, 10:46 AM

sounds cool. i'd try it if i used a screensaver...

Callandor · Nov 29, 2004, 11:53 AM

I wonder what someone like [color=Gold]Danhill[/color] wouldl think of this advent in technology.

Matth · Nov 29, 2004, 03:10 PM

Sounds like another thing I saw somewhere, with the same idea.

If the traffic levels were actually targeted to be a DDOS, it would be a problem - maybe more usefully combined with actions such as:

http://formflood.sourceforge.net

and - this is the one I remember now

http://www.astrobastards.net/uc/index.jsp - Unsolicited commando

Not just request overload, but saturate their forms with believable garbage data

pr0digal jenius · Nov 29, 2004, 04:37 PM

hahaha....'counterspam' *smells a half life mod*

Nov 29, 2004, 07:33 AM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	Lycos screensaver to blitz spam servers Lycos Europe has started to distribute a special screensaver in a controversial bid to battle spam. The program - titled Make Love Not Spam, and available for Windows and the Mac OS - sends a request to view a spam source site. When a large number of screensavers send their requests at the same time the spam web page becomes overloaded and slow. The servers targeted by the screensaver have been manually selected from various sources, including Spamcop, and verified to be spam advertising sites, Lycos claims. Several tests are performed to make sure that no server stops working. Flooding a server with requests so that the server is unable to respond to the volume of requests made - a process known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack - is considered to be illegal. Lycos believes the program will eventually hurt spammers. 'Spamvirtised' sites typically don't sell advertising, so they have to pay for bandwidth. Therefore more requests means higher bills, Lycos argues. A spokesman for Lycos in Germany told The Register he believed that the tool could generate 3.4MB in traffic on a daily basis. When 10m screensavers are downloaded and used, the numbers quickly add up, to 33TB of 'useless' IP traffic. Seems Lycos may hurt not just spammers. register

Nov 29, 2004, 10:46 AM	#3
LeanWolf alpha male Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Skyrim Posts: 5,714 Rep Power: 84 System Specs	sounds cool. i'd try it if i used a screensaver... __________________

Nov 29, 2004, 11:53 AM	#4
Callandor Forged on Dragonmount Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Posts: 7,250 Rep Power: 304 System Specs	I wonder what someone like [color=Gold]Danhill[/color] wouldl think of this advent in technology. __________________

Nov 29, 2004, 03:10 PM	#5
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	Sounds like another thing I saw somewhere, with the same idea. If the traffic levels were actually targeted to be a DDOS, it would be a problem - maybe more usefully combined with actions such as: http://formflood.sourceforge.net and - this is the one I remember now http://www.astrobastards.net/uc/index.jsp - Unsolicited commando Not just request overload, but saturate their forms with believable garbage data

Nov 29, 2004, 04:37 PM	#6
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	hahaha....'counterspam' smells a half life mod