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I should have known when I got this warning sign last week that we were in for some trouble.
I put a note of explanation here (and linked for now up top to the text “Update Nov 2009″) that the site is definitely in flux while we work out what the next rendition looks like. I hate for newcomers to show up and wonder what is with all the sawdust and hammering.
Some of you have asked and have been interested to know what happened to the site that caused a problem for us. If that doesn’t interest you, you may now be excused, perhaps to call your Washington representatives to express your views on the health care reform proposal.
Here is what happened.
For some reason, the file (index.php) that creates the front page for you when you come visit here was running many, many more times than it should be. It was using up all the server’s resources. The Political Parlor shares a server with other web sites, and the Parlor was using up so much of the server’s resources that the host company had to take the Parlor offline so that the other sites would not keep crashing.
The big question is why index.php (the front page) was running so many times. A snapshot of one instant provided by the host company showed that forty instances of the script were initiated in that one instant. That is not forty people lingering over the front page, that is 40 calls to index.php at precisely the same moment.
Plus, though index.php was running so many times, for some reason I was not seeing that show up in the visitor logs. I had made no edits in the scripts in recent weeks, so it did not seem likely to me that a bug all of a sudden began spawning these unwanted processes.
It’s kinda like your doorbell keeps ringing over and over, constantly. That could be because you are having more foot traffic on your porch, or you could have a doorbell problem. Could be you have a doorbell that somebody has learned to exploit without actually coming to the front door. Since you are not seeing a lot of people on the porch, you have to shut the doorbell down to replace it (or in the blog’s case, upgrade it).
Perhaps related…
In one day last week, the blog rejected more spam comments (most of them apparently in Russian) than in all of October combined. In just this half of November, the blog has rejected more spam comments than in all of June, July, August, September and October combined. Those hits are not showing up in the visitor logs, so maybe someone was trying to work a vulnerability in the software. As far as I can tell, those efforts should not make the index.php file run, but it is an anomaly that happened at the same time so for all I know perhaps it’s somehow related.
In any case, everyone involved seemed to agree that upgrading the software was the obvious first step to try to address the issue.
The upgrade was a little involved because I wanted to be extra-cautious to make sure that I didn’t lose the content accumulated over the years, including things like legislative audio files, etc.
So far so good.
Legislative Dispatch
Purple Dot Connection
2010 Big List
2010 Senate Elections
2010 House Elections
Press Releases
Dan,
It would appear your site has been targetted. How or why the Index file is being called so frequently is an interesting question. The real question is always that of motive, and seeing as you do not deal in financial transactions the only other target would be information. Particularly about your readership.
It is not beyond the pale to expect someone would be interested in that information, a division of the white house has already been hammered for similar practices. My knee jerk thought was that you’ve struck a nerve against an influential person, but it would be poor politics as your reporting is objective and repected for being a true moderate source for Alabama political news… and lawn mower repair.
Danny, looks like the KGB is out to get you.
Isn’t Paragon’s headquarters in Moscow?
That might be funny if Paragon Source was a computer company that had something to do with websites. It’s not, as the Montgomery Advertiser was finally able to explain. But the truth won’t stop Alvin and his Allies from pulling crap like this. Sorry about your website problems, Danny.
I do like the new look of the website. It’s cleaner and easier to read.
I’m glad you are back. I was starting to get the shakes from Doc’s withdrawal!
Got to be Rove. First Siegelman, now you. This is getting scary.
Seems like a pretty routine DOS Attack (Denial of Service). Can easily be caused by a botnet constantly pinging the same page. Very similar to the attacks that took down Facebook and twitter not too long ago.
These attacks are sometime automatically aimed at popular pages in the favorites or history of infected computers.
Brian and Baudrillard, there is a long list of suspects, and Rove is definitely on it.
Thanks, Susan! I make no guarantees that this is what the site will look like in the long run. But it might be! I have heard from 3 or 4 who really like the clean look, and from at least a couple who think it is a bit too austere.
Thank you, Anonymous!
Tom, if someone was making effort to stress the site, I’m inclined to believe it was some cyberbully who saw an opportunity to make mischief, kind of along the lines of what Common Sense suggested. (Sure would take a lot less to bring this site down than it would Facebook or Twitter.) I do believe the software needing to be upgraded may have been a factor of some kind. If not, we may continue to have a problem.
Danny
Did Joe Perkins smile at you the last time he saw you?
You may be interested to read some of the comments from the candidates in the news story from today’s Mobile Press-Register.
“We welcome people of all faiths, but at the same time, the standard for America is under the Judeo-Christian principles.”
- Kay Ivey
“I think you should allow any display that’s not an establishment of religion.”
- Roy Moore
“I believe in the literal interpretation, that the holy Bible is the inspired word of God. Period.”
- Tim James
“I think there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be literally true and parts that are not.”
- Bradley Byrne
For the entire news article, click onto this link: http://www.al.com/news/press-register/metro.ssf?/base/news/1258382718228780.xml&coll=3
Shocked that Brad Byrne would say that. Lost my vote!! That’s liberal thinking. The Bible is Gods word end of story!!
Good luck with your spammers and I’m so glad you’re back.
I suspect Summakor.
All that matters, is your continuance of service in the way only you can provide. Long live the parlor.
I had some denial of service of attacks a few years ago, but hired some 419 scammers (you won the lottery, I have $30,000,000 – $30 million – in a foreign bank account for you, etc.)to counterattack wasting immense of amounts of their time:
http://www.419eater.com/html/john_ademola.htm
We totally overwhelmed their efforts.
Just kidding, of course. I can’t see with the billions spent on anti-spam efforts I still get a dozen of these every morning, though.
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