Monday, 7 May 2018

Hello to my Russian friends?

I was trying to make sense of my internet visitor traffic yesterday:


I know I have 206 followers but I would be surprised if more that 40 of them visited me. I guess you get traffic hits if you have to be loaded on someone else's blog, if they "follow you" on their Blogger Gadget.

However the surge of 1000+ visits from our Russian friends can only be a "bot", so should I feel alarmed or privileged?

Anyway: "Здравствуйте" ("Hello")

14 comments:

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

Geordie,

This has happened to me in the past ... and it had a similar 'blip' yesterday. The source always seems to be Eastern Europe (I've been spammed a couple of times this week from Poland) and as far as I know, is relatively harmless.

All the best,

Bob

Unknown said...

crypto currency miners searching for machines to steal time on?

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Internet paranoia abated
Friendly neighbourhood web crawlers from Russia?
A good reason to turn your computer off at night!
Another reason not to host yourself but go through a third party

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

Geordie,

It's always a good idea to keep things at arns length when it comes to the Internet. That and good anti-virus software and a firewall should minimise any risk. It won't remove risk, but like a burglar alarm, potential threats will go somewhere where getting in is easier.

All the best,

Bob

TamsinP said...

Yup, web-crawlers. I think we can all look forward *cough* to a few more spikes over the next week or so - that seems to be the pattern based on my past experiences.
I'm not sure if they are indexing web pages for search engines, or hunting for abandoned blogs to take over. I've had similar spikes from the US in the past, so it is most likely indexing.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Lol
I think you have spotted the "smoking gun" Tasmin ;)

EY said...

This happened throughout the middle to end of 2016 for my blog stats. What was alarming was that in early 2017 those 2000 hits/week from Russia suddenly turned into 2000 hits/week from the USA (normally I only get 400/week from the USA).

Recently it's been the Canadian Pharma Hack bots that have been pinging me, but I think a lot of them have been blocked now.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Nice to know everybody is "watching the watchers" EY ;)

BigLee said...

Maybe someone in the Kremlin is a closet wargamer?

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Lee we best check to see if GHQ products end up in Moscow by getting the US to put secret micro chips in some of their models ;)

Heck, truth may be stranger than fiction :O

Andrew Noonan said...

Well, you at least have one real human visitor from Russia.. an Aussie in exile over here..
Andrew

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

How are you enjoying the World Cup atmosphere?
It must be absolutely crazy after the 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia!
:)

Andrew Noonan said...

I have't noticed as yet but maybe tonight and tomorrow there will be a lot of drunks and parties around.

I lived in Oman a number of years ago and if the team did well there, the Sultan would give a day off for everybody. I don't think Putin will do that...

I saw a lot of your replies and posts to Paul over at Plastic Warriors.
I sure miss his updates and hope he is well. Still visit his blog on a regular basis to re-read old articles he posted.

Andrew

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Likewise I hope to see Paul return to his blogging