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 May 08, 2026, 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 May 08, 2026, 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 May 08, 2026, 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

Quote from: Courtney G on May 08, 2026, 06:30:34 PMI 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.

Well for what it's worth Courtney I think you have a lot to be proud about in your selfie images. You are a woman. When you are out and about, people see a woman.

I mean, who cares if some small minded morons grab a picture of you or me and poke ridicule at us? I'm not interested in their opinions and I sure as hell don't visit any sites of that nature. As long as they don't know where you live you aren't going to get any hate to your door. Social media? Well I don't present female on there and I don't really post selfies on there so I think people would struggle to join the dots really. I don't really do social media though. I guess if you are prolific at it there might be a worry.

I guess I'm saying I'm not worried, I'm proud of what I look like on here and I'm proud of the friendships and interactions I have with everyone on here. You should be too.

Sarah xx

Quote from: Susan on May 08, 2026, 05:01:15 PMOur 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.

Wow

QuoteIf you encounter any persistent lag, receive error messages, or have difficulty connecting, please let me know.

Here in Uruguay, I've had NO lag, error message, or difficulty connecting.

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

Thank you for developing your expertise and being ready to apply it here. We all appreciate this Place.

I've lived thru a couple of cyber attacks.  For the IT defenders fighting in the trenches, it really sucks.  Your life pretty much goes on hold.  Sometimes for days or weeks at a time.  It can be intensely stressful.  

Giant shout out to Susan.  Thank you!  I know it was a rough time. 

I'll make an educated guess that the offending ASNs were associated with large hosting providers like Cloudflare and AWS.  If that's the case, the blocks that are in place should have little impact on most Susans users connecting from home or mobile devices.  VPN users might have some issues, however.

One note from past experience.  A DDoS attack can provide cover for other attacks.  User database infiltration, for example.  Clearly that's not good.  You might consider doing an audit on your logs for correlating events. 

Hugs,
Liz

Are there more such attacks going on today?

These messages persist:



Temporarily Unavailable

Due to high stress on the server the forum is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.

Probably Chrissy. I lost access for over an hour tonight. i've only just been able to get back on now.

Server was overloaded for over an hour.  Multiple reasons why that can happen.  Seems to have just come back. 

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on May 09, 2026, 03:18:29 PMTemporarily Unavailable

Due to high stress on the server the forum is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.

I hate to share that I got the same message almost 3 hours ago.

Add me to the 'unavailable' list. No problem logging on early this morning but when I tried to get back on a few hours later, SP was unavailable.

I made several attempts over the course of several hours. But like the old saying goes: the umpteenth time is the charm.

Seems to be okay right now.

@Stottie Girl  @Liz K  @Moonflower  @Dances With Trees  @ChrissyRyan  @Alana Ashleigh

Susan is aware of your reported issues and is continuing to refine her solutions.

Danielle [Northern Star Girl]
    Forum Admin

  cc:  @Susan @Devlyn @Lori Dee @Sarah B @Jessica_Rose @Mariah @Charlotte Kitty

Another site I frequent uses cloudfare to filter out bots.  Susan's guiding hand appears much less intrusive than cloudfare asking me to verify my humanity.  AND not remembering for even a full session which. 

There are decreasing numbers of good places on the Internet.  Susans.org remains solid. 

Hello everyone,

I want to provide a quick update regarding the recent "Temporarily Unavailable" messages some of you have encountered.

Over the past few weeks, the site has been the target of an exceptionally high volume of automated traffic. To put the scale in perspective: in a single 24-hour window, we were targeted by over 400,000 unique systems. This is an immense amount of pressure that would typically overwhelm most independent platforms.

To ensure the site remains stable and accessible for our community, I have shifted our defensive strategy. Rather than reacting to individual connections as they happen, I have implemented broad-spectrum network filtering. This allows us to deflect the vast majority of this unwanted traffic at the perimeter, long before it ever reaches our forum software or impacts our database.

What this means for you:

• Priority Access: When the "Temporarily Unavailable" message appears, it is because the system is actively prioritizing legitimate community traffic during a volume spike. It usually resolves within a few minutes.
• Perimeter Security: These improvements are designed to be invisible. They work at the connection level to ensure that our platform's data and your browsing experience remain stable.
• Ongoing Monitoring: I am continuing to refine these global filters to ensure the best balance between high-level security and ease of access.

We are successfully neutralizing the pressure on the server, and the site is now significantly more resilient than it was even a few days ago. Thank you for your continued support and for being part of this community.

Thank you for all your efforts Susan. With the exception of last nights 1 -2 hour outage I have only ever experienced drop outs of around 5 mins or so. This is a small price to pay to keep us safe😀

I know you have our back out there in the ether!

Thank you for all you do. This is a hell of away to come back from a rest

I'm having issues again. I'm getting a temporary unavailable message.

Yeah, me too Alana, it's just temporary though. Not sure what we've done to warrant such an attack but hey ho. It will end soon enough when they get bored.

Sometimes I push buttons and there is no error message, but nothing happens.

Eventually I get away from the current screen.  As an example the Home button seems to not work.  That is an important button.  Or Recent topics.  Or Unread Posts.  Eventually these work again.

Patience is required!

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on May 10, 2026, 07:01:28 PMSometimes I push buttons and there is no error message, but nothing happens.

Eventually I get away from the current screen.  As an example the Home button seems to not work.  That is an important button.  Or Recent topics.  Or Unread Posts.  Eventually these work again.

Patience is required!

I am getting that too, Chrissy. It is just lag. If you click a button, just wait. It will go.

As you said, patience is required.

Technical Update: Server Stability Restored

I wanted to share some good news regarding the site's performance. After a three-day resurgence of heavy automated bot activity, I have successfully cleared the botnet from our network.

I have spent many hours over the last 36 hours fighting to protect your access and reclaim our community space from these intruders. This effort has successfully restored the "Hardened Territory" that is our network, making it secure once again. You should notice that the site is now significantly more responsive, with pages loading quickly and consistently. Behind the scenes, the server is running cool and quiet, having returned to its normal, efficient baseline.

I am continuing to monitor the perimeter in real-time to ensure the community remains protected, but for now, the "noise" has been neutralized. Thank you for your patience while I worked to get the botnet off our site and restore the quiet environment we all value.

See you on the boards,
— Susan💜

Thank you, Susan.

I do not imagine that was an easy fix. We all appreciate all you do for us.

Thank you Susan for getting rid of the pests.

Chrissy

Eveything is zippier apart from going back to the home screen which takes a little while to refresh. Not a critisism, just letting you know.

Thanks for all your efforts. You're going to need to take another break to get over this one!

We've identified and fixed the cause of the recent slow load times on the front page. The delay traced to a network-level block that inadvertently included an IP address used by Discord.gg. Because the front page pulls real-time data to display online Discord users, the server was forced to wait through a 14-second DNS timeout before the page could finish rendering.

We've updated our protected resources list so that essential third-party services — including Discord, the internet root servers, and Google's core infrastructure — are excluded from broad network blocks. These protected networks are now handled with finer granularity, allowing us to maintain rigorous security without impacting legitimate site functionality.

Load times have returned to normal. We're continuing to refine our automated security systems to prevent similar overlaps in the future while keeping the site and its users fully protected.
Thanks for your patience while we tuned the system.

Thank you, Susan!

I still get a bit of lag when I first land on Susan's and again during login. It isn't bad, about 20 seconds. After I am logged in, the lag is much, much less, and only when going to the home page.

It isn't an issue, just FYI.

Earlier today the forum experienced a period of slow page loads and intermittent timeouts. The cause was a surge of unwanted automated traffic targeting the site — the kind of activity our defenses are designed to absorb, but the volume this afternoon pushed our servers harder than usual for a stretch of time.

Our systems automatically detected the pattern and our team was on it throughout the event. Site performance has since returned to normal, and the site is running smoothly again.

No user data has been accessed or compromised. What the attackers were after is the same thing any visitor to the site is able to see, our public-facing posts.

Users email addresses, IP address information, and other personal account details are visible only to staff and have not been exposed — the only exception being members who have chosen to post that information publicly, against our long-standing  advice against doing so.

You don't need to take any action. If you noticed pages loading slowly or got an error and tried again later, you saw the system working as intended. Simply try again later.

We certainly appreciate your patience while we worked through it, and we're continuing to refine our protections so events like this have even less visible impact in the future.

Your very weary Site Administrator,
— Susan💜

Quote from: Lori Dee on May 13, 2026, 01:12:24 PMThank you, Susan!

I still get a bit of lag when I first land on Susan's and again during login. It isn't bad, about 20 seconds. After I am logged in, the lag is much, much less, and only when going to the home page.

It isn't an issue, just FYI.

That was fixed, and an announcement was posted earlier this afternoon.

The timeout that occurred last night lasted for more than a little while, it was completely unavailable for large parts of the evening and notably for a long time at a key point in heated discussions last night which meant things were left un said. I hope we will soon see an end to these attacks.

Not a complaint by the way, I just figured feedback would be helpful to you as I am logging in from abroad.

Today, I experienced a minor glitch where my screen froze for a few minutes. Otherwise, everything is behaving much better than it was.

Thanks, Susan!

I am switching to realtime mitigation today. Tomorrow we are moving all previously blocked networks to 7 day blocks only.

We were ahead of the game, and we blocked what was almost certainly this same network using automated tools.

Some of you may have seen the recent news regarding Dutch authorities and their National Cyber Security Centre dismantling a massive global botnet comprising over 17 million compromised devices. When we were seeing hundreds of thousands of systems from all over the world hitting our servers to scrape public posts, it wasn't just random noise—it fit the exact pattern of these massive "residential proxy" botnets.

These attacks work by quietly infecting everyday devices—home routers, smart cameras, computers, and phones. The attackers then route their traffic through those hijacked connections to hide their true location, making malicious scraping look like it is originating from ordinary households.

I want to reassure everyone that your private information was never at risk. These automated systems could only access what any non-logged-in guest can see; your emails, passwords, and private messages remained completely secure. The custom defensive measures we deployed to block those specific networks worked exactly as intended to protect our community space.

Since these global networks rely on hijacking unsecured home tech, this serves as a gentle reminder to perform a quick check on your own devices. Ensuring your home Wi-Fi router is running the latest firmware and has a strong, unique password—rather than the default credentials—goes a long way in keeping your own digital home from being unknowingly recruited into these networks.

As I mentioned recently, we are now using real-time mitigation and shifting to rolling blocks for offending networks. This keeps our defenses agile and strong without causing unnecessary hiccups for legitimate members trying to connect. We are in a much better, quieter place now. Thank you all for your incredible patience and for sticking with me while I worked to clear this noise and reclaim our space. It truly means the world to me to keep this community safe and running smoothly for everyone.
—— Susan💜

PS: For those who would like to read the full reports from the security journalists who covered this story, here are the original sources:

• Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/05/botnet-of-more-than-17-million-devices-dismantled/
• The Hacker News: https://thehackernews.com/2026/05/dutch-authorities-dismantle-botnet.html
• SecurityWeek: https://www.securityweek.com/dutch-police-dismantle-massive-17-million-device-botnet/
• TechRadar: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/17-million-strong-botnet-of-compromised-devices-dismantled-by-dutch-authorities
• NL Times: https://nltimes.nl/2026/05/28/ncsc-dutch-police-disrupt-global-botnet-controlled-via-netherlands-based-servers

Thank you, @Susan, for your tireless efforts!

All you do for us in the Forums and behind the scenes is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!!!!!!

@Susan thank you for all your hard work keeping us safe on here!