Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hello everyone,

If you have noticed the site running slowly or acting unusual periodically over the last few weeks, your observations were correct. Our server has been under significant pressure due to a high-volume automated attack. Over the last 24 hours alone, the site was targeted by over 400,000 systems attempting to scrape our content. Most web sites would have been unable to handle the volume of attacks or the sheer number of the attackers.

To mitigate the attacks, I first had to write a set of custom tools to identify and block the attackers. Rather than targeting the individual connections, due to the sheer volume of attackers, I was forced to implemented blocks on specific AS numbers (networks responsible for this activity). This allows us to stop unwanted traffic before it impacts our server resources, ensuring a more stable experience for our members.

As a result of these updates, you should notice:

• Improved Speed — Pages should load more quickly and reliably.
• Better Stability — The server is now better equipped to handle regular community activity.
• Enhanced Security — These measures provide additional protection for our platform's data and privacy.

I will continue to monitor the situation closely. If you encounter any persistent lag, receive error messages, or have difficulty connecting, please let me know.

If you are traveling abroad and find yourself unable to access the site, please reach out so I can verify that your connection hasn't been caught in these broader network blocks.

Thank you for your patience while these technical improvements were being made. It is a priority to keep our community running smoothly for everyone.

Ah that explains things. Thanks for the update Susan. And thanks for keeping our content safe. I appreciate all the hard work you must have been doing in the background.

Susan
You are an angel. Thank you for the effort and work. It is appreciated.

Susan, would the "scraped" content include member blogs? I'm pretty positive that I need to have my selfie(s) removed from my blog just to be safe.

Courtney,


I would think just about anything posted except in private messages is subject to indexing and/or copying by others.

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on Today at 05:40:49 PMCourtney,

I would think just anything posted except in private messages is subject to indexing and/or copying by others.

I wasn't sure if blogs are available to non-members and if they can be indexed by bots or if one had to be registered and logged in to view them.

Quote from: Courtney G on Today at 06:09:38 PMI wasn't sure if blogs are available to non-members and if they can be indexed by bots or if one had to be registered and logged in to view them.

I'm sure Susan has the security pretty well sewn up here but this is a public forum. There is always a risk you could loose stuff. It's not something that bothers me too much. I try not to post anything that would identify my exact location or name but other than that I don't think anyone would be interested in what I post! ha ha!

I can't be sure if it is text or what they are after they were targeting content across the site. I know that this network isnt something that came cheap. They can see whatever a person not logged into the site could see.

Quote from: Courtney G on Today at 06:09:38 PMI wasn't sure if blogs are available to non-members and if they can be indexed by bots or if one had to be registered and logged in to view them.

Most of the site can be viewed by anyone, anywhere. There are a few exceptions, like Staff areas so that things like email addresses are not available to the public.

That is why our Welcome Messages to new and returning members include the warning:

Please keep in mind when posting that this is an ALL-AGES  PUBLIC Forum and the internet never forgets. Do not post anything that you do not want to be made public.


See also this post:

https://www.susans.org/index.php?topic=82221.0

I guess it's important not to get *too* comfortable with the space. I knew I was taking a chance by posting a selfie in my blog because there are hate sites on which people share photos of trans people they've grabbed from webspaces. They encourage everyone to pile on and make fun of the photo's subject.

Basic cruelty.

My profile photo is too small to be used to identify me and from looking at the page source, it doesn't appear that a larger photo is available to visitors.

But for others who might be reading this, be especially careful not to share the same photos here that you posted to social media (for example) because a web image search might lead them to someplace that personally identifies you.

If you want to purge all your blog photos and you used a hosting service to post them, just log in to your hosting service and delete the images or the album. That will sever the link here and will just show an ugly placeholder instead.

Susan, I appreciate all the work you do on here. It's very much appreciated.

Alana