CleanTalk's blog

    Sign up

    Author: Alexander

    • CleanTalk Released an Application for the Protection of Yii Framework Against Spam and Spam Bots

      CleanTalk Released an Application for the Protection of Yii Framework Against Spam and Spam Bots

      CleanTalk completed the development application for the Yii Framework, to protect the site against spam and spam bots.

      This application allows users to quickly and easily connect to anti spam server CleanTalk. Its service provides 100% protection from spam bots for website administrators and a simple and convenient commentary/sign-up form for visitors.

      This application allows protection from automatically distributed spam, as well as from spam bots registrations. The protection method offered by CleanTalk allows users to switch from the methods that trouble the communication (CAPTCHA, question-answer etc.) to a more convenient one.

      CleanTalk saves time and resources spent on moderation and verification of questionable users or comments. Unnoticeable Protection from spam and registration forms, which does not require the visitor to prove who they are, increases the conversion in registration and is not annoying.

      CleanTalk is a cloud service, security module, installed on a website, which sends the behaviour parameters of the visitor or spam bot. These parameters are estimated, and the service makes a decision – to post a message or to define it as spam and reject.

      On the basis of such checks, the service forms its own list of email addresses used by spam bots. Likewise the registrations of visitors are checked. The service adds not only email addresses to the blacklist, but also IP addresses and domains of the websites that are promoted through spam mailout. The CleanTalk company developed unique algorithms to assess the behavior of the visitor, and with 100% accuracy we keep spam messages at bay. All of this happens automatically and requires no action from the administration of the website.

      The Company provides automatic spam protection services for popular CMS: WordPress, Joomla, phpBB, Drupal, DataLife Engine, IP Board, vBulletin, MediaWiki, SimpleMachinesForum and open API for PHP, Perl, Python, NET.

      © cleantalk.org 2014

       

    • SpamTrawler company announced a collaboration with the anti-spam service CleanTalk.

      In the security web sites SpamTrawler integrated solutions CleanTalk to protect websites against spam that will receive the entire range of services through a single software system . Now all the company’s customers SpamTrawler will be protected from spambots attacks with anti spam service CleanTalk.

      SpamTrawler a powerful set of integrated tools for security Web sites, including: firewall, virus scanner, malware scanner, file integrity monitoring.

      CleanTalk – is a cloud automatic spam protection service. The protection method offered by CleanTalk allows to switch from the methods that trouble the communication (CAPTCHA, question-answer etc.) to a more convenient one. This application allows protection from automatically distributed spam, as well as from spam bots registrations.

    • Anti spam module for Simple Machine Forum

      smf-logoWe are glad to inform you about SMF anti-spam MOD, the MOD protects the forum against attacks from spam bots. The module completely invisible to the visitors of the forum and does away with the ways of protection, impairing communication of visitors to the site(CAPTCHA, question-answer, etc.). The application allows you to automate the protection from automatically send spam, and from registration by spam bots.

      To determine the spam bots are using multi-level test in the blacklisted IP/Email, JavaScript support, time filling out forms and other. This allows to achieve 100% protection from spam bots.

      Installing the module is simple and will not take much time. All registration (approved and blocked) can be monitored in the Control panel, you can also use the mobile application and receive notifications to your phone.

    • CleanTalk launched mobile application which is to control sign-up/commentary on a website

      We have developed and launched a mobile application for clients of our service. Now all iPhone/iPad users will be able to monitor messages, commentaries and sign-ups controlled by the CleanTalk anti-spam service.

      The application is unified with the anti-spam service by the CleanTalk company – it collects all data about commentaries and sign-ups on your website that is necessary for website administrators and instantly sends it to your mobile device. You will no longer need to sign in on your website or email as long as the application automatically notifies you about new information.

      It is especially useful when you may not miss and important message, for instance, online shops owners will absolutely value such functions as you will be able to get instant information about an order received.

      The application is available free in AppStore. Version for Android is currently being developed and will be released in the nearest future.

    • Updated antispam module for WordPress

      We are pleased to inform you that today we released an update anti-spam plugin for WordPress.
      ( No captcha, questions, counting animals, puzzles and arithmetic tasks )

      In the new version, in addition to the comments and signups, added anti-spam protection for popular WordPress plugins:

      • JetPack Contact form
      • Contact form 7
      • Formiadble forms
      • BuddyPress

      In addition to English and Russian language support added Spanish language translation for a special thank you and Andrew Kurtis WebHostingHub.

      Archive https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/cleantalk-spam-protect.2.27.zip

      To determine spam bots CleanTalk uses a series of tests, inconspicuous site visitor, including checks the message subject or article site. This ensures 100% protection from spam bots, you do not need extra protection.

      Now you can turn off on your site protection methods that impede communication and requiring the user to certain actions, such as:

      • Captcha, reCaptcha,
      • Questions / answers
      • Arithmetic tasks etc.

      All these methods are not only easily identifiable and cost bots, but also an obstacle to the public.

      If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

    • Version 1.2.2 of Invision Power Board protection hook is released

      Version 1.2.2 of Invision Power Board (IP.Board) hook of protection against undesirable comments and spam bot registrations is ready!

      Spam comments checking and automoderation are added comparing with the previous version 1.1.2.

      Full list of features:

      •      Comment relevance to forum topic,
      •      Presence of links and stop words,
      •      Presence in black lists,
      •      Filtering by ip-addresses
      •      Filtering by e-mail,
      •      Checking client’s JavaScript is on.
      •      Checking duration of forms filling,
      •      Advanced diagnostics error – mail messages while offline and manual moderating of controversial comments,
      •      Login attempts writing to the Spam service log,
      •      Compatible with IP.Board versions 3.X,
      •      CAPTCHAs is not required.

      XML with hook cleantalk-ipboard-1.2.2.xml

      Hook interacts with moderation servers via Cleantalk API 2.0.

      Hook is up and running on our cleantalk.ipbhost.com.

    • PHP Class protect the site from spam

      Not so long ago we updated the PHP class protection against spam sites, which may well be used to protect any PHP web-site. Of the most interesting changes:

      • protection of the site without Captcha;
      • automatically connect to the fastest server in a pool of servers;
      • detailed examples of the use of the class.

      Download the latest version of the class cleantalk-anti-spam-script-0.20.1.zip.

    • Importance of comments and automatic spam protection.

      Importance and necessity of comments on websites, blog or forum is already understood by everyone. That is so because they directly influence the traffic. Comments for searching engines imply that the website content is actively discussed. Many users value the utility of a product by comments to it. But there is one peculiarity – this may be the wish of some users to get a backlink and traffic from your website. Nevertheless, all websites and forums are affected by spam, automatic or manual.

      I offer you to speak today about the protection of a web resource from spam. Spam in comments, blogs or in a forum creates considerable workload for moderators and if you’ve got your personal resource, blog or forum, all this work falls on you, taking much time for routine tasks. No user would read forum or website overwhelmed with spam so protective measures are to be taken.

      So what methods or principles of spam protection do various software products offer?

      In fact all spam protection methods consist of complicating the way to the comments for spam bots. But what makes the access more complicated for spam bots, makes it more complicated for users as well, so this is the reverse of the coin. Inputing Captcha, counting numbers and answering questions is quite embarrassing for everyone. Such methods push the visitors off. And comments and messages on forums are the source of traffic. The more sophisticated the methods of protection are, the more complicated the bots become as they learn how to avoid protection.

      Another aspect of the protection methods is protection from manual spamming. It consists in  pre-moderation of messages, i.e. permanent control by a moderator, which also pushes the visitors off as they wish to communicate in real time but not wait for moderation of their messages. If you do not use pre-moderation you may also choose to delete spam messages manually which is also not good.

      You have to hire staff for moderation and this means extra losses.

      And if it is your personal website and you are a moderator here, you waste YOUR time already. So maybe you just automate the process?

      So consider another spam protection method which lacks the drawbacks of the previous ones. Here users may post messages and comments online and they are released now from captcha and another tools offered to them within conterspam methods.

      Let`s consider this solution, which is CleanTalk.Spam protect plug-in, more precisely. This plug-in currently works with the following platforms: Joomla, phpBB, WordPress, DataLife Engine, IP Board, vBulletin.

      Its principle of operation is based on the messages relevancy and evaluation of this relevancy to the topic of website, blog or article to which the comment is written.

      If a commentary was written by user and fits the topic, it will be automatically published. If the message does not coincide with the topic, it will undergo manual moderation and the user will be sent notification with the reason for blocking. The user here will be able to correct his message while a bot will have to switch to a less protected resource.

      As the result the website is protected from spam and off topic messages and visitors have handy and simple registration procedure and comments form which is undoubtedly an advantage as the comments are the source of content. Resources previously spent on moderation may now be redirected to more productive activity.

      Additional features of the CleanTalk plug-in allow to block messages with stop words and form the user`s his own list of stop words. The service also allows to send the messages, which contain obscene lexis, swearing and proclivities to ethnic dissention, to manual moderation.

    • Comparative statistic of spam activity on 4 popular CMS

      We have briefly analysed spam activity on 4 CMS powered platforms with CleanTalk service and got the following results:

      • First place — WordPress, 99.46% of spam messages, 88 thousand queries in selection.
      • Second place — DataLife Engine, 91.12% of spam queries (registrations + messages), 3 thousand queries in selection.
      • Third place — phpBB3, 86.98% of spam queries (registrations + messages), 655 thousand queries in selection.
      • Fourth place — Joomla, 42.08% of spam messages, 2 thousand queries in selection.

      Figures show that our incontestable “winner” is WordPress. This platform is the most popular among spammers.

      Joomla`s low percent is explained by the fact that Cleantalk works only with JComments component so far. Only recently did it start to support standard feedback form component. JComments does not work if website visitor`s computer does not support JavaScript, which accordingly influences the quantity of spam queries.

      We broadened our analysis a bit.

      First, we drew a diagram of previously mentioned data for them to be more vivid. We also counted average number of spam attacks on websites with regard to the platform. We used queries of August 2012 for our analysis. Here are the results:

      • phpBB3 — 180 spam attacks a day on average.
      • Joomla — less than 1.
      • WordPress — 338 spam attacks a day on average.
      • DataLife Engine — 101 spam attacks a day on average.

    • CleanTalk Company expanded its spam protection services for websites. A CMS protection app vBulletin was issued

      CleanTalk Company finished the development of an application for vBulletin which allows protection to a forum from spam.

      This application allows protection from automatically distributed spam, as well as from spam bots registrations. As an extra service, users can take advantage of additional functions, they can block messages with the help of stop-words  or compile their own dictionary of stop-words. The service allows to send messages with obscene words and pejoratives to manual moderation. The protection method offered by CleanTalk allows to switch from the methods that trouble the communication (CAPTCHA, question-answer etc.) to a more convenient one.

      CleanTalk – is a cloud automatic spam protection service.  To detect spam the multi-stage verification systems will check the pertinence of a message to the topic of a page, time of forms filling etc.

      The Company provides automatic spam protection services for popular  CMS : Joomla, phpBB, WordPress, DataLife Engine, IP Board.

      © cleantalk.org 2013