Hackers, Microsoft, And Gerry Connolly
By Greg L | 20 March 2008 | Fairfax County, Blogs, US Congress | 3 Comments
Does Microsoft hate me, or does it hate Gerry Connolly? It’s hard to tell, given the fifteen eighteen thousand-plus web server requests their servers made to BVBL over the last twenty-four hours requesting a page which shows how Gerry Connolly hasn’t done such a bang-up job in cleaning up zoning violations in Fairfax County. That little stunt rocketed this post to the top of the BVBL all-time most-viewed articles list which appears on the bottom of the main index page. Maybe Leslie Byrne needs to boost up boss Connolly’s negatives in the increasingly bitter intramural fight for the 11th Congressional District nomination? Or does Microsoft Corporation have a beef with boss Connolly?
Here’s an example of one of the tens of thousands of identical entries in my server log:
65.55.107.164 - - [20/Mar/2008:02:22:12 -0400] “GET /index.php/2007/09/23/the-effects-of-gerry-connollys-neglect/ HTTP/1.1″ 200 49318 “-” “msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)”
I know Microsoft technology is frequently horked up beyond all belief, but I can’t imagine that the web search robot for Microsoft Live is so terrifically screwed up that it needs more than three or four thousand tries to get a web page cached correctly. That’s part of the reason why I have been blissfully free of all Microsoft technology at home for several years now. The freedom of never having to worry about virus updates is utterly wonderful.
No, I can’t imagine that even Microsoft can screw up this badly. My guess is that someone found a convenient weakness in their search engine site submission system, and jammed it with requests to search this page so that it would be more prominently displayed on BVBL. Very simple to do when you figure out how it’s done, and how to automate the process, although the level of greediness here is their undoing. Had they been a little less brute-force about this, it might have gone unnoticed.
There’s no shortage of techies in the 11th CD who could pull this minor stunt off. My only question is why someone would want to do this.
The new media political wars have taken a distinct and rather unusual turn. We are a battleground.
UPDATE: The effort, which continues even now, has pushed the BVBL post I mention here to the second page of results on the Microsoft Live Search for “Gerry Connolly fairfax”, from not being anywhere in the listings. Also showing up in the results is a critical post by “Snapped Shot”, whose server logs (if he has access to them) would probably yield some fascinating data as well.
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Gee maybe Microsoft needs more programmers from India (NOT)
Blast Rep. Smith for introducing a bill to TRIPLE the H-1B visa program
This new fax has been posted in your Action Buffet based on your answers to the Interest Survey.
You can find this fax by proceeding to
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This is a special action request for NumbersUSA members who have selected “programmer” or “hi-tech” interests on their surveys.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) has introduced the Strengthening United States Technology and Innovation Act (H.R. 5642), which would TRIPLE the current H-1B visa cap to 195,000 in 2008 and 2009.
Click here to visit NumbersUSA’s page on hi-tech visas.
Please send this fax to Rep. Smith and let her know your displeasure with H.R. 5642.
I can give you a good reason. It is a precursor to a denial of service attack on BVBL. This warrants some additional attention on your part Greg. I do not think the bot did it on its own, it has had help. This isn’t a script kiddie either, this is someone that knows how to hack the bot and use it against you. You can’t ban the IP or the real bot will not be able to cache your pages. Best thing to do is let MS know what has happened and be prepared to send the log to them. Save all documentation showing this anomaly.
The most obvious culprits would be Ben Tribbet at NLS or Lowell at Raising Kaine.. Both are blogging from deep inside Leslie’s arse as we speak and both see their main opponent as Connolly, despite the fact I think Denneny has an outside shot. (See Too Conservatives analysis)