is anyone else getting random follows from accounts on infosec
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is anyone else getting random follows from accounts on infosec.exchange and defcon.social where the account is like a day or two old, has barely any profile filled out, has zero posts, zero followers, but is already follwing a few dozen or a few hundred accounts? seems super shady. ive been blocking them on sight
@Viss the bots have gotten very good at gaming the moderated signups. Residential IP, protonmail or gmail address, on topic reason for joining, then lay low, make a few posts, follow some accounts, then start posting about how unfair it was for Ukraine to start a war or how Christians are the most persecuted religion. It’s starting to make me crazy. Report them when you see them.
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@linuxandyarn my whiskers tell me they are collectors, in the event you make a followers only post, so whoever runs them can see shit you want to be semi-private
@Viss @linuxandyarn there’s no real advantage - mastodon is a wide open book.
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@Viss @linuxandyarn there’s no real advantage - mastodon is a wide open book.
@jerry @linuxandyarn huh. i wonder what the point is of having 'follower only posts' if anybody can see them anyway?
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@Viss the bots have gotten very good at gaming the moderated signups. Residential IP, protonmail or gmail address, on topic reason for joining, then lay low, make a few posts, follow some accounts, then start posting about how unfair it was for Ukraine to start a war or how Christians are the most persecuted religion. It’s starting to make me crazy. Report them when you see them.
@jerry yessir. ive just been blocking them, but i'll start reporting them now.
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@jerry @linuxandyarn huh. i wonder what the point is of having 'follower only posts' if anybody can see them anyway?
@Viss @linuxandyarn if you’re posting follower only, they you’re right, you have to be a follower to see them. Few people seem to post that way though.
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@jerry @linuxandyarn huh. i wonder what the point is of having 'follower only posts' if anybody can see them anyway?
@Viss @jerry @linuxandyarn Noise reduction.
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@Viss @linuxandyarn if you’re posting follower only, they you’re right, you have to be a follower to see them. Few people seem to post that way though.
@jerry @linuxandyarn i do them here and there, but in most cases, people boosting me has a tiny chance someone may want to talk shop, and thats important
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@varx i think it just has to do with post frequency. the more you post, the more you end up in the firehose, and the more you end up in the firehose, the more attention you attract
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@jerry @linuxandyarn i do them here and there, but in most cases, people boosting me has a tiny chance someone may want to talk shop, and thats important
@Viss @linuxandyarn anyhow, it’s an arms race and most instances are feeling it. I have a number of sentinel accounts around the fedi and they are getting follows almost every day lately from different instances.
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@Viss the bots have gotten very good at gaming the moderated signups. Residential IP, protonmail or gmail address, on topic reason for joining, then lay low, make a few posts, follow some accounts, then start posting about how unfair it was for Ukraine to start a war or how Christians are the most persecuted religion. It’s starting to make me crazy. Report them when you see them.
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@Viss @linuxandyarn anyhow, it’s an arms race and most instances are feeling it. I have a number of sentinel accounts around the fedi and they are getting follows almost every day lately from different instances.
@jerry @linuxandyarn i feel like some of my old twitter experience could be handy here, but unike then, i dont have hadoop access to all the logs, heh
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@jerry yessir. ive just been blocking them, but i'll start reporting them now.
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@silhouette @Viss I see all sorts of wacky stuff - that gets discarded. Quite a few of them are copying the contents of bios of other mastodon accounts and using that as the reason to join. I get a lot of “Infosec.exchange requires you to enter a reason to join. You need to enter something believable. Would you like help?” (Variations of that), and lately, it’s been very on point reasons “I work in IT and trying to get into cyber security” and so on. The latest wave is not really discernible based on the reason they provide.
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@silhouette @Viss I see all sorts of wacky stuff - that gets discarded. Quite a few of them are copying the contents of bios of other mastodon accounts and using that as the reason to join. I get a lot of “Infosec.exchange requires you to enter a reason to join. You need to enter something believable. Would you like help?” (Variations of that), and lately, it’s been very on point reasons “I work in IT and trying to get into cyber security” and so on. The latest wave is not really discernible based on the reason they provide.
@jerry @silhouette do the waves come from any isps or multiple signups from the same host? i get there are residential proxies in use, but im wondering if theres enough volume to spot patterns. or like, web/appserver logs from the same ip - do they do recon before signing up in a way that can get fingerprinted
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@jerry @linuxandyarn i feel like some of my old twitter experience could be handy here, but unike then, i dont have hadoop access to all the logs, heh
@Viss @linuxandyarn I really don’t know what the point is. The ability to spam or scam tens of people just seems… futile.
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@jerry @silhouette do the waves come from any isps or multiple signups from the same host? i get there are residential proxies in use, but im wondering if theres enough volume to spot patterns. or like, web/appserver logs from the same ip - do they do recon before signing up in a way that can get fingerprinted
@Viss @silhouette residential US IP addresses, tor exit nodes, and lately protonvpn. They have figured out how to mass create proton accounts because the last few day, protonmail.com and protonvpn IPs have become the strongest signal of a bot (but it’s also used by a lot of legit people)
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@Viss @linuxandyarn I really don’t know what the point is. The ability to spam or scam tens of people just seems… futile.
@jerry @linuxandyarn dude it boggled the shit out of me at twitter too. to the best of my ability, the only thing i could figure was stuff like
- bot armies to upvote/downvote
- astroturfing campaigns
- people selling 'buy followers' bullshit
- at twitter, verified accounts, but that doesnt happen here
- having bots for harrassment campaigns
- flooding threads / doing raids -
@Viss @silhouette residential US IP addresses, tor exit nodes, and lately protonvpn. They have figured out how to mass create proton accounts because the last few day, protonmail.com and protonvpn IPs have become the strongest signal of a bot (but it’s also used by a lot of legit people)
@jerry @silhouette see you think notifying proton would have some effect but the news coming out of that place telegraphs 'they really dont care so long as the checks are clearing and they dont get creditcard chargebacks'
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@Viss @linuxandyarn I really don’t know what the point is. The ability to spam or scam tens of people just seems… futile.
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@jerry @silhouette see you think notifying proton would have some effect but the news coming out of that place telegraphs 'they really dont care so long as the checks are clearing and they dont get creditcard chargebacks'
@Viss I don’t know if it’s that or they have relaxed some things to balloon their user base ahead of, I don’t know, a sale or merger, or investment, or IPO. Would have been a ridiculous thought a few years ago, but lately we are swimming in ridiculousness
, he’s doing his absolute best to minimise & shut this shit down 
