On my other blog I wrote about Lycos Europe releasing a screen saver that hits web servers that are “spam friendly”. Lycos denies that this constitutes a DDoS attack, but if it walks like a duck… Well, the spammers aren’t taking it sitting down.
Lycos Europe is denying that their web site was hacked as part of a spammer backlash against their Make Love Not Spam screen saver. The screen saver uses idle computer time to send requests to the spamming web host.
According to Netcraft, the MakeLoveNotSpam.com web site was down last night. In addition, a screen capture of the site was sent to F-Secure with the quote: “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.”
Lycos Europe is also denying the possiblity of affecting innocent users. They are using blacklists and claim that every address is verified.
One theorized method of fighting back is that the spammers have changed their DNS entry to match Lycos Europe’s site; thereby sending the traffic back at Lycos.
F-Secure has advised users not to participate in this “campaign” because of possible legal issues.
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