Wednesday, February 17, 2016

When Bots Attack

I live along the Fall Line which is where the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean was 65 million years ago. It is a 20 mile wide band that cuts between North and South Georgia. It gets it's name because of the number of waterfalls created by the rapid drop in elevation from the crystalline granitic soils and rocks of North Georgia to the sandy coastal plains of South Georgia.

It is also called the gnat line. Gnats live in the sandy soils of South Georgia.
Flint River out of it's banks on the bluff side

Gnats are really pesky.


I had a student one time that the normally reserved assistant principal who was a deacon at his church called a gnat. A student who broke his leg by pulling on a soda machine which is like a big refrigerator down on himself when he began high school. He was shaking it vigorously in hopes of getting a free soda.

I knew a woman who looked at times like she slept and rolled in horse manure. She had a crazy looking net over her head one day. I thought what a tacky hat.  I bought several to use in the summer. I hate gnats.

I do try to keep myself looking presentable. In all fairness, this woman worked all day in her horse barn. Which comes to mind, why is it when you look like an unmade bed in public, you will run into the preacher and most anyone you want to be presentable in front of? The fact that I get quite dirty working in my gardens baffled this woman. She hated planting flowers.

The internet is a fascinating place with gnats called bots. I will suddenly get 517 hits. The hits originate in Russia. I understand it is not uncommon for the hits to have originated in the United States or Western Europe with a Russian address.

I googled what the purpose of a bot was. Essentially they look for a weakness in your website so they can hack it. I wonder if the bots can pull a soda machine down on themselves.

Bots and gnats ubiquitous and unbidden are real pests. I have a brother that keeps a complicated list of robocall phone numbers and reports them regularly. He can wear your ear off talking about it. As his sister, I have told him that he needs a more productive hobby and to can it.

I filled out some information to check mortgage rates. When they asked for my social security number, I stopped cold. Since then, I get an enormous amount of spam. It eases up and then comes in roars. I no longer report them to spam@uce.gov.

I had thought of collecting the return email address. They are so clever, the initial email address is mine. What I thought was to collect the email addresses and forward future spam emails to them. Literally commit email address suicide. Then I thought about my blunt lecture to my brother. So I delete.

Meanwhile, bot owners, there is a soda machine with your name on it.






15 comments:

  1. haha wouldn't it be nice if all the bots got crushed by a soda machine? We all get plenty of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tpday my bots are from the Ukraine. As small as my blog is, I can't believe it is worth the effort to use to sell Viagra.

      Delete
  2. Yes, bots are always out there, looking for us! Like something out of a sci-fi novel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess that would make a good children's story. A bot with an attitude who decides to do good.

      Delete
  3. If only soda machines could fall from the sky and land on all bot owners.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It will be hard. Many are living in their parent's basement I suspect.

      Delete
  4. LOL
    That's horrible to not only not get your vending machine beverage, but then have it fall on you. Just yesterday I was speaking with friends about serious hacking. A Hollywood hospital was allegedly hacked and threatened to wire money or they'd release the records. They're now being wired money slowly but surely.

    - Harlynn
    mindyourmadness.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've heard of a police department who paid hackers to unfreeze their data.

      Delete
  5. Ha! I don't like gnats but I think I prefer them to bots.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. lol

      Bots at least remind us that threats are there whether we see them or not.

      Delete
  6. Hopefully that student's leg healed well. That's a tough lesson!

    We get gnats here every spring and fall, but their invasion is short-lived. Not so the bots! They are single-minded in purpose, so it pays to have a good website security program. Hopefully, Google is doing just that for its Blogger sites. Have you ever watched CSI Cyber? It's mind-boggling what "black hats" are capable of doing online.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh I think I will look up CSI Cyber, such, a good combination of topics for a thriller. I'm glad the gnats make a short invasion even though I have always loved looking at a cloud of them drifting or flying across a field.

      Delete
  7. This was a wonderful post. I liked tripping from one thought to another.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You do what you got to do to keep on posting. Good to see you Vanessa.

      Delete
  8. I agree with Vanessa, this was lovely! And funny too ;-) I bet conversations with you are as delightful as they are engaging.
    We don't get many gnats but boy do we get bats! My hummingbird feeders are doomed when bats are around, unless I take them down and set them on the patio table where they attract long lines of ants.
    I've learned more about bots from this post than I've ever known before, glad I came by; albeit a week late ;-)

    ReplyDelete

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