Best security measures against spambots

[Martinsx]

One of the major challenges that faces any site owner is the issue of spam bot actions that strive to ruin one's good work. This is why a lot is done on security checks to put this problem at bay.

There are so many ways a site owner can render the activities of spambots ineffective in one's forum but I prefer the security check of typing a specific word backwards. This completely renders spambots useless and powerless.

 

[Jasonn]

There are so many ways a site owner can render the activities of spambots ineffective in one's forum but I prefer the security check of typing a specific word backwards.

That's a method I use, but can anyone name some other ones that just as good? Anyway,I was also wondering if very difficult questions, though not backward types, would pose a challenge (to spambots). I'm talking about questions like, "What was Mozart's first symphony?".

 

[Martinsx]

That's a method I use, but can anyone name some other ones that just as good? Anyway,I was also wondering if very difficult questions, though not backward types, would pose a challenge (to spambots). I'm talking about questions like, "What was Mozart's first symphony?".

I that question wouldn't be easily bypassed by spambots. I have actually experienced one site that uses such kind of hard question security check and I haven't seen any activity of spambots flagging on the forum.

I would recommend using different size number and alphabets as a form of security, as I believe it would be almost impossible for spambots to change the character size of what it's writing with.

 

[EfficientNinja]

Have you tried using Captcha on your sites? I find that it is very effective against spambots because I think it is too dynamic for a spambot's algorithm. They also update it often and even real people are having a hard time passing it.

 

[Ash]

There are actually various different things that you can do to try to prevent spambots from coming onto your site and attacking it with spam content. A method that I found very effective is actually simply just having a question and answer system. Simple questions like "What colour is a banana?" seem to work really well (they did for me) and it always stopped spam bots from registering and posting on my forum. You could even have something as simple as a captcha system which would work really well as well!

 

[Martinsx]

Have you tried using Captcha on your sites? I find that it is very effective against spambots because I think it is too dynamic for a spambot's algorithm. They also update it often and even real people are having a hard time passing it.

Sometimes Captcha fails to work effectively, I say this because I have experienced some sites that make use of it where it just automatically approves ones click by ticking immediately on trying to load to open the Captcha.

I think that some browsers have a bypass protocol for some sites that uses Captcha. I'm not saying that Captcha is completely useless, I'm just saying it's not 100% trustworthy.

 

[EfficientNinja]

Sometimes Captcha fails to work effectively, I say this because I have experienced some sites that make use of it where it just automatically approves ones click by ticking immediately on trying to load to open the Captcha.

I think that some browsers have a bypass protocol for some sites that uses Captcha. I'm not saying that Captcha is completely useless, I'm just saying it's not 100% trustworthy.

If that's the case, maybe we should be stricter with our form validations. We should both have form input checks on both the front and back end. I also use a jQuery form plugin to help me filter unwanted characters. This will lessen the spambots because they won't be able to figure out the correct format for each input fields.

 

[Martinsx]

If that's the case, maybe we should be stricter with our form validations. We should both have form input checks on both the front and back end. I also use a jQuery form plugin to help me filter unwanted characters. This will lessen the spambots because they won't be able to figure out the correct format for each input fields.

I believe that's a good suggestion as well, as I'm sure it's quite capable of reducing the possibility of spambots activities on any forum.

There was one form of captcha that I saw recently, it's like a puzzle where a new visitor registering would have to drag the images involved to be a full object.

 

[EfficientNinja]

I believe that's a good suggestion as well, as I'm sure it's quite capable of reducing the possibility of spambots activities on any forum.

There was one form of captcha that I saw recently, it's like a puzzle where a new visitor registering would have to drag the images involved to be a full object.

Oh right! I also experienced solving that one!

I don't know if it's a new or old verification but it's one tough verification to crack for a spambot. Do you know what that verification is called?

 

[Martinsx]

Oh right! I also experienced solving that one!

I don't know if it's a new or old verification but it's one tough verification to crack for a spambot. Do you know what that verification is called?

Not mate, I'm not aware of the name of such verification protocol is called but all I know is that it is absolutely impossible for spambots to bypass such security measures. It's purely 100% spambots proof in my opinion.

 

[EfficientNinja]

Does CloudFlare also do spambot checking? I am not quite familiar with what it does for a website but I think it does some checking when you enter the landing page of the site. Are Captcha and CloudFlare a good security combo against spambots?

 

[Martinsx]

Does CloudFlare also do spambot checking? I am not quite familiar with what it does for a website but I think it does some checking when you enter the landing page of the site. Are Captcha and CloudFlare a good security combo against spambots?

I don't know anything about CloudFlare, would you be kind enough to tell me more about it and how it works? Or maybe I should look it up online and see other people's explanations of what it is and how it helps with site security.

 

[Paro]

pam is a huge problem even on forms that don't do anything that could ... (since a bot clearly submitted it) and deleted by your form action script. ... This is a good method to use if you aren't terribly worried about spam but would like ... times knowing their IP so you can block them can be strong protection.

 

[Olaji]

I usually set it up for any new member to type backwards the name of my forum. There's no way spam bots would be able to breach that level.

 

[Lucas]

Making use of email confirmation to verify any account registration. With this in check, it's going to be very difficult for spambots to have access to your website.

 

[Hank]

Does CloudFlare also do spambot checking? I am not quite familiar with what it does for a website but I think it does some checking when you enter the landing page of the site. Are Captcha and CloudFlare a good security combo against spambots?

Captcha and CloudFlare are very good for prevention of any kind of spambots. It's even used effectively to prevent DDoS attacks on your website. They are both activated on my website 24/7.

 

[Tony]

One of the major challenges that faces any site owner is the issue of spam bot actions that strive to ruin one's good work. This is why a lot is done on security checks to put this problem at bay.

There are so many ways a site owner can render the activities of spambots ineffective in one's forum but I prefer the security check of typing a specific word backwards. This completely renders spambots useless and powerless.

This is also the same method I use to in order to keep out spambots. It's worked very well in keeping them useless and powerless. I also use email verification of accounts to put spambots out.