Silvermac

Referer spam is a technique that involves making repeated web site requests using a fake referer url that points to the site the spammer wishes to advertise. Sites that publicize their access logs, including referer statistics, will then end up linking to the spammer’s site, which will in turn be indexed by the search engines as they crawl the access logs.

This benefits the spammer because of the free link, and also gives the spammer’s site improved search engine placement due to link-counting algorithms that search engines use. [Wikipedia]

I have tried using several WordPress plugins but without much luck. However blocking the referer in the htaccess file has surely done the trick.

I have added the following to the .htacess file

SetEnvIfNoCase Via pinappleproxy spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer doobu.com spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer poker spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer casino spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer cazino spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer kasino spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer medici spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer medica spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer insur spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer roulet spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer virtuel spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer pharma spammer=yes
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer adult spammer=yes

Order allow,deny
allow from all
deny from env=spammer

… and the amount of referer spam has gone from several hundred hits per day to zero in three days. Fingers crossed.

Just came across an interesting discussion on Whirlpool, where a poster asks why there are no viruses for OS X. The quick and obvious answer by a few “enthusiast experts” was that the market share of OS X is so small that nobody really bothers writing any malware for Mac.

Yes, this is the most common answer you get from people who also answer “right-click” when asked what Macs can’t do that Windows can. Sigh!

I liked the reply by the user TwoFruits, so I thought I’d share his very down-to-earth analysis of the malware absence phenomenon on Macs.

There is no silver bullet answer as to why not, its a combination of reasons :-

1. OS X is built on UNIX. UNIX was a multi user system with a security architecture built into it at the beginning. WINDOWS came from a single user architecture with security and multi user capability as an after thought.

2. UNIX had networking built into it from the beginning, again in Windows this was bolted in at a later date.

3. Windows built Internet Explorer into the O/S at a very deep level, and allowed code execution within the browser. In OS X the browser is a completely separate application, its not a integral part of the OS. IMHO, this is the fundamental screw-up Microsoft made, as they created so many hooks into which someone can attack the OS.

4. In earlier Windows everything ran as the system user, so the capability to compromise an entire system was easier. (see reason 1)

5. Microsoft’s backward compatibility mantra doesn’t do them any favours as to run old software they need so many old APIs, all of which can have holes in them.

6. OS X has no registry. IMHO, second fundamental flaw Microsoft made.

7. OS X asks for your password before allowing you to run new software or install something. Not fool proof, but at least fool resistant.

Personally I don’t buy the “lack of market share” reason. Consider that in pre OS X days Macs did have viruses. Also interesting, that at that stage Macs were suffering point 1 & 2.

No system is totally safe, but Macs have a lot of architecture working in their favor.