You may have noticed an increase in spam comments appearing across the site recently. We’re glad to confirm this has now been fixed.

After digging into the issue, we traced the problem back to our spam filtering service. The configuration hadn’t been set up correctly, which meant the filter was being bypassed entirely in certain cases. In practice, this allowed some users to post comments without going through the verification check that’s supposed to catch this kind of activity.

We raised a ticket with the provider as soon as we identified the cause, and between their support and our own checks, we’ve now got the configuration corrected.

  • The verification check is back in place and working as intended
  • Spam filtering is now correctly enforcing the rules it should have been applying all along
  • We’ve reviewed recent comments and removed the spam that slipped through during the affected period

We’ll be keeping a closer eye on the filter’s behaviour over the next little while to make sure everything stays as it should. If you spot anything that looks like spam, please flag it to us so we can take a look. Thanks for your patience while we got this sorted.

George Allison
George Allison is the founder and editor of the UK Defence Journal. He holds a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and specialises in naval and cyber security topics. George has appeared on national radio and television to provide commentary on defence and security issues. Twitter: @geoallison

47 COMMENTS

  1. i make $17,240 a month blah blah blah. just kidding.
    very good news that those nasty spam bots are gone. so thanks!

  2. Great. It’s been driving me nuts. I’ve had more replies from scams to posts on my email than I have real replies! 🤔😊

      • I’m going out on a limb here Dern, has he just been left a substantial sum of money and just needs somone to clear a cheque for him, obviously for a generous fee🤔🤔🤔

    • Geoff… Do you want to earn £17,000 a week… just send me a £10,000 in investment stake to “ I’m stealing your money for my boat fund. co.ng” and I will send you the secret of vast wealth.. All you will need to do is find 2 new investors a week.. 🤣😂🫣

      • WOW, thanks. The cheque will be in the post soon (?). Meanwhile my two friends are John Smith and Jimmy Jones. I hope they do well. 🫣

      • That’s a lot more convincing than most of the actual spam…
        If we find 2 more subscribers each to the ‘weekly brief’ will George hand out book tokens?

  3. What I though was ironic is that they seemed to like answering each other more than normal comments….apart from Geoff Roach, apparently they were on him like flys on shite…😂🤣

  4. For a while there, I thought you might have got rid of all the Regulars 🤔🤔

    But I shouldn’t have worried, It’ll be business as usual again now. 😊😊😊😊😊.

    Thanks George 🫂🫂🫂

  5. Hey! They were totally legit! I made loads and loads. Now all I need to do is send £3000 to their account in Bermuda to cover legal fees so that they can send me my millions by cheque. I can hardly wait. I punched my boss in the face and peed in the office flower pot and told them to stuff their job. #WINNING!

    • 🤔🤔🤣🤣🤣 And to think they said you were a gullible fool, watch them eat their words now…

  6. Thank goodness. Good job George & team. Those spam comments really are intrusive & annoying. But how do we “flag” them? I’ve not seen any such option for years.

    • Unless I just go all-out Monty-Python Viking, “Spam spam spam spam, spam spam spam spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam!”
      Would that do?

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