May 17th, 2006
Blue Security Inc. Gives In
By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
If you read any of this mammoth post by David Johnston, you are already familiar with what was going on with the Blue Frog. Well, apparently the owner Eran Reshef is throwing in the towel.
Then, earlier this month, a Russia-based spammer counterattacked, Reshef said. Using tens of thousands of hijacked computers, the spammer flooded Blue Security with so much Internet traffic that it blocked legitimate visitors from going to Bluesecurity.com, as well as to other Web sites. The spammer also sent another message: Cease operations or Blue Security customers will soon find themselves targeted with virus-filled attacks.
Today, Reshef will wave a virtual white flag and surrender. The company will shut down this morning and its Web site will display a message informing its customers about the closure.
“It’s clear to us that [quitting] would be the only thing to prevent a full-scale cyber-war that we just don’t have the authority to start,” Reshef said. “Our users never signed up for this kind of thing.” Source: Washington Post.
We Say: Say it isn’t so. With more than 50% of email being spam, we will be hard pressed to win this fight, I know I get tired of creating filters and rules, it’s just easier to create a new email address and start over, especially if you have your own domain name. I’m getting ready to kill my oldest email address soon, I know this will help no one else, but it will sure make it easier on me.
Updated: I just read on CastleCops, via Digg that if the spammers somehow take over that ip address they could possibly send scripts to the clients and do about anything they want. So, apparently the Blue Frog is not only dead but could possibly be deadly. So, uninstall the client as soon as you can, just to be safe.
dave says:
This is just unbelievable! Myself and thousands of BF users decided to ignore that spammer’s threat and continue to fight the good fight are left to fend for ourselves. We didn’t bail on them, but they bailed on us! thanks alot!
May 17th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
ishtar says:
This is so sad. That spammers was so pissed off shows that it was working!
May 17th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
dave says:
This Eran Reshef was like George Bush Sr. in the first gulf war.
Tell the Iraqis that if they fight Sadaam, then he will back them up, but bailed out and left them to be slaughtered. Checked my inboxes, I’m getting hammered again.
he said “It’s clear to us that [quitting] would be the only thing to prevent a full-scale cyber-war that we just don’t have the authority to start,” Reshef said. “Our users never signed up for this kind of thing.”
Um yes, we did. We agreed to that after the first attack. If I knew that Blue Security was going to bail out on us, I would have listened to the spammer and unsubscribed from their registry.
May 17th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
PsychoHazard says:
Personally, I did sign up for this kind of thing. The spammers are nothing more than internet-savvy terrorists. I think it’s perfectly justified to go to war with them.
May 17th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
hoozieg says:
This is “giving in to a TERRORIST’S demands” which this government will not allow to happen even if human lives are at stake. Call in the troops, track this guy down and hang him from the nearest tree as a message to other spammers! It makes me so mad that he’s succeeded in bringing us down. Someone needs to pull the plug on this guy and treat him like the terrorist he is. Isn’t it a crime to hold the entire internet hostage?
May 17th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
David Johnston says:
I’ve yet to count this as a complete loss. I’m betting there will be other companies or organizations that will take the Blue Security idea and start their own services. Another idea I’ve heard floating around is making such a system P2P so it would be much harder to bring down. We’ll see. I’m sure we’ve entered a quiet period now, but I don’t expect the vacuum to stay for too long.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Tony says:
This sucks. I finally found a site I was behind for fighting spam, and poof. it’s gone. Personally I was all for sticking it to the spammers =)
May 19th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
David Johnston says:
FYI: http://www.okopipi.org/
May 20th, 2006 at 8:02 am
Charles says:
Before anyone gets too self-righteous, it should be considered that Blue Security may know more about the situation at hand that what we do.
That said, which is more frustrating about SPAM? That it is sent to you, or that it actually works as a form of advertisement?
I mean, if SPAM didn’t generate sales, it would cease to be, right?
May 20th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
dave says:
Well now that Blue Security completely WUSSED out, that spammer is now on the loose terrorising people like us and this money exchange site, by telling them to send him money or continue a massive Joe job to destroy thier domain.
Shame on them for having so many people stick with them and believe in what they are doing than pulling the plank from everybody. I am now getting hammered with these emails and there is not a damn thing I can do about it now. F*&K you BLue Security!!!
May 22nd, 2006 at 8:02 am
Dougy says:
Currently e-mail is based on a “push” technology, whereby mail is sent to our local mail server and stored there till we download it. What needs to happen is that mail servers must change to a “pull” technology, where only the header is sent to ‘our’ mail severs so that we can then pull it from ‘their’ server if so desired. This will cut down a lot of the bandwidth abuse by the spammers and so freeing up the internet.
May 30th, 2006 at 3:26 am