wordpress pingback attack

What’s going on? This:

Are you a WordPress blogger? Yes? Did you spend the weekend attacking a gaming site? No?

Don’t be so sure.

Incapsula, a Web services company that offers protection from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, has announced that over the weekend one of its clients was the object of a sophisticated yet simple attack. The person or persons behind the assault exploited innocent WordPress sites to form an army of 2,500 blogs, all of which were sending relentless pingback requests to the target site.

Are you at risk? It seems to depend. If you’re hosted at WordPress.com, it appears the hackers, whoever they are, will not mess with you. If you’re independently hosted, using software from WordPress.org, and either using Wp.org 3.5 or better OR simply enabling pingbacks then yes, you are at risk. For you as a blogger, the worst-case scenario is having your blog visibly slow down (well, unless the Feds decide you were in on it that is) which isn’t such a big deal. But it’s a big deal to the target of the attack, who sees nothing but thousands or tens or hundreds of thousands of requests to ping from legitimate websites. The blog doesn’t know how to shut it down, because the attacking blogs are not exactly infected. They’re just doing their jobs.

Want to opt-out of becoming an inadvertent part of someone else’s botnet? Easily done. Go to the dashboard Discussion settings and diable pingbacks. DONE!

Yes, really that easy.

Copia

Since I became a reporter, I’ve had much less need to network IRL and much more need to network online, but there is one networking group that I truly support, and that’s Copia. It was started a year ago April 3 by my friend and mentor Alanna Fero, whose intuitive life coaching has seriously helped me to make major, positive changes in my life. Her networking group is very much like her: it’s business, but it’s informed and soulful business. Sounds too woo-woo for you? Think again: girlfriend lives in an apartment the size of a mansion overlooking Stanley Park, so that would be pretty good proof that her instincts and skills are pretty boss. If you know Alanna, I don’t have to tell you this, but if you don’t know her, you should.

Which is where the one-year anniversary party comes in. Here’s the announcement from Meetup:

Wednesday, April 3, 11:45 AM to 2:15 PM

Pol Roger room adjacent to Cafe Fleurie in the Sutton Place hotel at Robson and Burrard.

IT’S BEEN A YEAR ALREADY!  70 Events, 1000s of Referrals and Lots of Amazing Collaborations begun in our space.  Come celebrate with us!

We’ll do lots of connection-making with a larger-than-average crowd, have a year-in-review presentation and then hear about some of the relationships, sales, collaborations and creations which have begun in our space.  Our goal is always your success and inspiration – idealism intertwined with pragmatism – Copia is, after all, WHERE HIGHER SELF MEETS BOTTOM LINE.

Please invite your friends and colleagues – we’re inviting the press and we want the best turnout possible.

READY TWEET for you to copy, paste & use:  Amazing Conscious Business Network #copiavan celebrating 1st anniv w/ a networking party – prizes, media, cake!  http://ow.ly/jceKT

JUST A TASTE OF OUR FEATURED SPEAKERS GIVING 2 MIN PRESENTATIONS:

• Lindsay Smith, Founder of both TechVibes and Massive Media
• Meredith Nicole, Oden Gallery (featured on CTV’s Intersections)
• David Westdorp, Founder, RDANA Technology (winner of BCTIA’s People’s Choice Award for Best New Software)
• Maggie McKee, Vital Wellness
• Charlie James, Intuitive Strategies
• Karen Laskey, Laskey Counselling & Hypnotherapy
• Susan Rowan, Miracle Wellness Products, Bellingham

http://www.copiaspirit.com

$20 cash at door or $21 online in advance includes 2 hour meeting,

special buffet appies & birthday cake

Sorry no cheques or cc on site

Make cc payments online in advance @ http://tinyurl.com/copiaroundtable

Copia meetings do all the relationship-building, promotion and sales of any regular business network, but add the depth of Spirit Venture: an awareness of life purpose, an openness to meeting your whole self and not just your business persona, and an intention to support the wellness and authentic self-actualization of every member of our community. You’ll never feel better about your business or more excited about your life!

Questions? alanna [at] copiaspirit [dot] com.

Never miss a meeting! Send an email to notices [at] copiaspirit [dot] com to be added to the Copia notices list.

Copia is for you if:

• you admire great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Anita Roddick, Mark Cuban, Arlene Dickinson, Yvon Chouinard, Jeffrey Hollender, Larry Page & Sergey Bren, and Ben Cohen, every one of whom credits intuition as a cornerstone of their key decisions;

• you read books and watch webcasts on productivity, innovation, marketing, systems (or at least save and bookmark titles and wish you had time to get back to them!) because lifelong learning and getting better at what you do to get more out of life is something that matters to you;

• you feel a sense of purpose, mission or dharma in your life or business… or you have a longing to feel more of that and would like some support to help you get there;

• you run your business or career with a higher code of conduct and decision-making than mere market standards or even conventional ethics, knowing that we are what we do and what we invest in (money, time, energy, thought… it’s all karma at work);

• you try to make time for a spiritual life, perhaps you have a personal practice, probably a strong sense of purpose or dharma, yet you sometimes find yourself struggling to earn the living you desire or to balance time and priorities so they work for you;

• you enjoy learning, growing and connecting in a positive environment which attracts other smart seekers, supports your authenticity and courage, and offers insight to take you just that little bit farther than you could go on your own;

• you would enjoy meeting and feel more confident exchanging business referrals with a community of people who seek to live with awareness in action, who embrace Integral living and a quadruple bottom line (people, planet, profit and presence), and who renew their choice every day to take their souls to work;

• you believe in being for things instead of against them; that abundance leaves no room for scarcity; that love can always conquer fear; and that there is no conflict between spiritual consciousness and material success;

• you’re still reading whether you feel like any of the above described you bang-on or not – something is resonating. YOU ARE CURIOUS; it’s time to learn more.

http://www.copiaspirit.com

@copiavan | #copiavan

Please bring $20 cash for the meeting and your meal or PREPAY $21 by credit card here:  http://tinyurl.com/copiaroundtable. Sorry, no cheques, please.

Please RSVP, arrive early, bring plenty of business cards, small marketing display items for our Marketplace Table and, if you like, a door prize to give away and improve your brand.

It’s like MAGIC! Thanks, Steve!

Yessssssssss! Thanks to the lovely and generous Ava Naves of Online Strategy I’ve got me a spanking-new used iPhone 3, and thanks to the warnings of numerous friends I know not to update the basic software, lest it become confused  in typical outdated-tech-steve-wants-you-to-buy-another ways.

By the way, Richard Branson, your Virgin Mobile staff (particularly at Cherry Lane mall in Penticton, BC) simply fucking rock and I’m very, very glad to be back with them, and at $45 a month cheaper than it used to be!

So, I immediately started adding the apps I was so excited to finally get to use again after December, 2011, when I dumped the iPod Touch into Hot Tub Central after my third Martini.

The apps I added, in order, are:

1. iBooks
2. Instagram
3. YouTube
4. FBMessenger
5. Twitter
6. Skype
7. MyFitnessPal
8. LinkedIn
9. Facebook
10. LoseIt
11. Flashlight
12. Relax Melodies (I ADORE THIS ONE)
13. Ant Smasher
14. GIFBoom which is probably getting deleted pretty soon, I’m not 13
15. Camera Awesome
16. Camera Pro FX
17. Gymboss
18. iWOD Fitness
19. RSS Radio
20. Fitocracy
21. Remix Workouts
22. Poetry from the Poetry Foundation
23. Paper Toss 2
24. Paper Toss 1
25. Foursquare
26. Hootsuite
27. Sonar (oh, how I’ve missed you)
28. Angry Birds
29. Angry Birds in Rio

Now, keeping in mind I am NOT a marketer but a writer and reporter, what other apps should I get? Oh, also keeping in mind I’m too cheap to pay for apps.

round table

For those of you who are not aware, my “day job” is as a freelance reporter, working at a number of places the most regular of which is the Daily Dot. They’re producing a series of round tables on Google Hangouts, and this one might be of interest:

InterActing with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

WHEN: March 27, 12 PM PDT / 3 PM EDT (duration: 75 minutes)

WHERE: Live Google Hangout

WHAT: If you’ve ever gotten a takedown notice on your YouTube account, had your DVD player or other software tell you that the movie you’re trying to watch is rights-restricted, or been the victim of a false copyright claim, then you know how confusing and frustrating the concerns regarding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act can be.

Originally the DMCA was passed to provide major corporations with a method of recourse for quickly acting upon copyright infringement, as well as to deflect responsibility from Internet Service Providers that host infringing material. However, confusion over current copyright law, as well as occasional Digital Rights mismanagement or abuse of claims from copyright holders, has hampered the activities of many media creators and consumers.

As new technologies evolve, creative forms of expression abound, and as both artists and corporations become savvier about sharing and protecting content, copyright becomes an increasingly contested territory, despite the fact that more and more forms of creative work are protected under the Fair Use clause of U.S. copyright law. While media arts nonprofits, advocacy groups, and legal teams have been fighting to extend the rights granted to creators under the DMCA, rightsholders are increasingly threatening and misfiring at protected material.

Join The Daily Dot and NAMAC in our next InterAct panel, for a lively conversation with creators, fans, educators, and tech and legal experts who have felt the full impact of DMCA on their work. In this engaging round table, we’ll discuss the victories and challenges in Fair Use across media arts disciplines, and fill you in on how to join the community that is staunchly and successfully advocating for protected forms of creation in an increasingly restrictive world.

WHO:

• (MODERATOR) David Cooper Moore is a documentary filmmaker and board member for The National Association for Media Literacy Education. He also works with the Center for Media and Information Literacy at Temple University. In 2009 he was a director/producer for the short 3 Fair Use Case Studies for the Media Education Lab, where he is a Program Director. As a documentary filmmaker, David has created videos and curricula for the PBS Elections 2008 curriculum, Access, Analyze, Act: a Blueprint for 21st Century Civic Engagement, and the Center for Social Media’s Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education.

• Representatives from Kartemquin Films:

  • Gordon Quinn is the Artistic Director and founding member of Kartemquin Films and the Executive Producer of its most famous film, the landmark Hoop Dreams. A key leader in creating the Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, Gordon encourages filmmakers to educate themselves on the tenets of the fair use doctrine, frequently speaking to the media, legal, and educational communities about this fundamental right.

  • Jim Morrissette has been the Technical Director of Kartemquin Films for over a decade, and served as Director of Photography for Kartemquin’s Peabody award winning Terra Incognita in 2007. With the rest of the Kartequim staff, he has led advocacy efforts to protect the rights of documentary filmmakers. Recent victories in which they were involved include securing DMCA exemptions for ripping DVD & streaming video content and advocating successfully for the right of journalistic privilege over raw footage in the Central Park Five case.

• Sina Khanifar is a serial entrepreneur whose first company, started while he was studying at Oxford in England, offered a service to unlock Motorola phones. He was subsequently sent a cease and desist letter by Motorola claiming that he was in violation of Section 1201 of the DMCA. After working with Jennifer Granick at Stanford to respond to those letters, he’s been actively following the conversation around some of the problems with the DMCA, and recently started a We the People petition regarding unlocking that garnered a response from the White House. He is now leading a coalition of technology organizations including Reddit, Mozilla, and O’Reilly at FixtheDMCA.org, asking for Congress to reassess the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA.

• Art Neill is the founder of New Media Rights, which provides pro bono legal resources and assistance regarding intellectual property, licensing, and other legal issues that arise with new technologies and media, along with a free media studio. Neill also practices public interest law in the areas of internet, intellectual property, and communications law, and is an adjunct professor of law at California Western School of Law teaching Internet & Social Media Law.

• Rebecca Tushnet has taught intellectual property, advertising law, and First Amendment law at the Georgetown University Law Center since 2004. She clerked for Associate Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court and has also worked at Debevoise & Plimpton specializing in intellectual property. She is a the Legal chair for the Organization for Transformative Works, a fandom non-profit which successfully secured DMCA exemption rights for fanvidders in 2010 and 2012.

• Tisha Turk is Associate Professor of English at the University of Minnesota at Morris, where she teaches courses on writing, gender studies, and fandom. She has written about fan vids both in academic journals and for the In Media Res Media Commons Project. She has been making vids for over ten years. She was part of the Organization for Transformative Works team that successfully testified before the Library of Congress in 2009 and 2012 in favor of lifting DMCA restrictions for fan vids and remix video.
  On Twitter: @TishaTurk

AUDIENCE:

• Filmmakers / media artists

• Remix artists

• Media literacy educators and practitioners

• Students

• Copyright advocates / policy analysts

AUDIENCE: HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS:

Twitter Hashtag: #InterActs

Submit comments on Google Plus or on YouTube

After the conversation, the Daily Dot and NAMAC will post summaries of the broadcast and/or embed the videos on their respective websites. Will also follow up with a compilation of resources / links discussed during the conversation or that panelists find helpful to these issues.

READS and RESOURCES

EFF Updates on DMCA

DMCA Exemptions for Documentary Filmmakers Renewed

New Media Rights work on extending and protecting DMCA exemptions

Center for Social Media: Fair Use library

Fix the DMCA

Social Flow Workshop logo

Yes, they’re back! And more affordable than ever. Canada’s best productivity expert, Mike Vardy, and I are re-launching our Social Flow workshops with this after-work session in Victoria on March 26th. You can register at Eventbrite, and here are all the details:

It’s a social media struggle!

Wrestling with the idea that you can’t possibly become better at promoting yourself or your business through social media without it harming your productivity?

Well, wrestle no more.

Taking part in Social Flow: How to Win with Social Media without Losing Productivity is your ticket to championship gold in record time!

Social media trainer Lorraine Murphy and “productivityist” Mike Vardy will guide you through the ins and outs of managing the social media profiles that keep you both active in your work and telling the public about your work all in one go.

Topics covered include:

• How to Make Gmail Your Best Friend
• What Task Manager is Right For You
• Why Your Email Inbox is Not the Right Task Manager for anyone
• Improving your Social Flow in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+
• Why Planning your Social Media output is Integral to Your Social Flow
• How to Avoid Falling Prey to the Perpetual Automation Machine
• What Calendars are actually For
• How to Increase Your Social Flow Using Hashtags, Twitter Lists…and more

This hands-on boot camp will not only get you on top of your social media profiles, but it will get you on top of what you need to do make sure they add attention to your business rather than subtract your attention from your business. (And it’s an excellent primer for the upcoming Social Media Camp here in May.)

About Mike Vardy

Mike Vardy is a husband, father, independent writer, speaker, podcaster and “productivityist”. He is also the author of the book, The Front Nine: How To Start The Year You Want Anytime You Want, published by Diversion Books. You can learn more about his other work at his website, MikeVardy.com, visit his blog at Productivityist.com, and you can follow him as @mikevardy on Twitter.

About Lorraine Murphy

Lorraine “raincoaster” Murphy is founder of raincoaster media, specializing in transformative social media training, as well as President Emeritus of Social Media Club of Vancouver, and has been a professional blogger and social media trainer since 2002. She specializes in teaching beginners and those with barriers to internet use, and in social media for social change. Her flagship blog, raincoaster.com, has been studied as part of the New Media curriculum in three universities, and the comments thread on her Mummified Fairy post has been called “one of the most beautiful things on the internet.” She conducts workshops in the transformative use of social media on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and blogs and reports on hacktivism, WikiLeaks, and Anonymous regularly to many different sites, including Slate and The Daily Dot.

UPDATE:

Unfortunately, due to low pre-registrations, we’re going to have to push this back to later this Spring. Will let you all know when it’s rescheduled.