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One strategy tip: don't play cat and mouse. As you've demonstrated, if you change one thing, they will figure it out and change one thing. Not only does that no
by wpietri 4y ago
One strategy tip: don't play cat and mouse. As you've demonstrated, if you change one thing, they will figure it out and change one thing. Not only does that not work, but you are training them that it's worth trying to beat your latest change.
Instead, plot a few different changes and throw them in all at once. Preferably in a way where they will have to solve all of the changes at the same time to figure out what happened and get things working again. Also, favor changes that are harder to detect. E.g., pure IP blocks are easier to detect than tarpitting and returning fake/corrupted content. The longer their feedback loops, the more likely it is that they'll just give up and go be a parasite somewhere else.
- DamnInteresting 4y ago> pure IP blocks are easier to detect than tarpitting and returning fake/corrupted content I recently had to employ such a strategy against some extremely aggressive card testers (criminals with lists of stolen credit cards who automate stuffing card info into a donation form to test which cards are still working). Instead of blocking their IPs, I started feeding them randomly generated false responses with a statistically accurate "success" rate. They ran tens of thousands of card tests over many days, and 99% of the data they collected was bogus. It amuses me to know that I polluted their data and wasted so much of their time and effort. Jerks.
- wpietri 4y agoThis warms my heart and it's a great example of lengthening the feedback loop.
- yonixw 4y agoI love it, also add a randomness, there is nothing more frustrating than a problem that only reproducers sometimes!
- wpietri 4y agoExcellent idea!