Friends, today we want to tell you about how we started actively fighting bots and what results it brought!
We have known for quite some time that there are various kinds of programs, mainly browser extensions, that "help" take a good order.
We have not taken any measures for a long time - an update is coming, a huge number of current tasks that do not allow us to take this problem seriously.
But just a few days ago the situation changed radically! The load on our servers has grown to unimaginable proportions.
If during normal times our servers served approximately 150-200 requests per second, then in recent days this figure has grown to 400-500!
Our servers have started to slow down. You have all witnessed this - pages were loading for 15-30 seconds. It was simply impossible to work with the site.
At first we did not attach much importance to this - we wrote it off as a short-term surge in activity. But in the next few hours the situation only worsened and we realized that the problem was not a one-off, but a systemic one.
It must be a DDOS attack, we thought...
Our first step was to switch the anti-DDoS protection system to the highest level of protection.
We were so surprised when the traffic didn't go down - it continued to grow!
What kind of DDOS is this that nothing can take?
Here we had to tear the most experienced specialists away from the most important processes and throw them into fighting the site's slowdowns.
And only then did we find out that this was not parasitic traffic, not a DDOS attack - but ordinary traffic from ordinary users!
This traffic has simply increased many times over.
Although such requests are not a DDOS attack in the classic form, in fact they created this parasitic load, which almost completely blocked the project's work.
We realized - the whole problem is in the bots..
Probably, either another bot came out, or the existing ones updated their mechanisms for receiving orders and increased the number of requests to the server... this is not really that important. It is important that bots began to spam our servers to failure!
Until this point, we had several defenses against simple bots, but due to the development of the project, these defense systems did not keep up, and ultimately turned out to be not so effective...
We were faced with an important and urgent task - to find and neutralize all bot users, or at least most of them.
The task was complicated by the fact that with each passing minute the servers were processing requests more and more slowly, something had to be done right now!
We decided not to develop complex systems for determining BOT/HUMAN, but to defeat bots with cunning!
As a result, our specialists developed a fairly simple but effective mechanism for recognizing a BOT/HUMAN in the shortest possible time.
A small digression about how bots work...
How does a bot work?
A bot is a small program that is programmed to perform certain actions in a strict order.
A bot is not a person, it does not look at the site with its eyes - it sees it in the program code, and operates with it in the same field.
It is not possible for the server to determine who sent the request - a person or a robot? Of course, if the bot is not stupid at all and does not sign its request as "I am a robot!" But we banned those long ago.
The hunt for bots is open!
Knowing that the bot is essentially stupid and performs specified actions, we did the following:
We hid the "take order" button from human eyes, but at the same time left it in the program code in the same place.
As a regular user, you cannot see it - much less click it!
And we added a new button "Take order" - which is located in a different place in the code structure, and is called differently, but performs the same action - takes the order.
What we expected - honest users will click on the new button, because they only see it, and bots - on the old one - because they are programmed for this button.
The result was not long in coming...
Ordinary users did not notice the difference, but bots began to press our tricky button, which an ordinary person cannot see.
And as you can guess, we simply began to record those who press the hidden button.
Thus, we identified a considerable number of bot operators.
And then came the time to hand out bans...
So far we have blocked only 100-200 users. These 100-200 users from the entire audience are only a small part.
But how did this affect the work of the servers! The site started working again quickly and without delays!
And all it took was to find and neutralize several hundred bot operators...
We have also developed several other mechanisms for identifying bots, but we will keep silent about them, so as not to reveal all the secrets.
And the most interesting thing is that technical support was inundated with letters - they say we are not bots at all!
Yes, as crazy as it may sound, these users are trying to prove to us that they don't use any programs!
Despite the fact that we recorded THOUSANDS of requests per MINUTE for some users - they continue to claim that they take orders "by hand"...
At the moment we have a huge list of people who use bots. The most active part of the bot owners received a ban.
Why are the rest free? We hope that they will come to their senses. And stop spamming the server with their bots. But if not, then bans will be issued to ALL BOT USERS
The end result...
According to our estimates, the users who were banned illegally withdrew from the project amounts of about 3-5 million rubles, with ten times less investment.
This is a fairly large amount of money that they earned illegally.
And it was these users who took the fattest orders, regardless of whether there were many or few orders.
Starting from this moment, we finally decided to put the task of fighting bots in the foreground!
With this post, we want to inform all users who used, are using, or are planning to use bots - go ahead! buy bots!
Use bots - but then don't complain that you'll get banned for 181 days!
About robberies
In the previous post, we received a lot of feedback that robberies are bad.
We try to listen to our audience.
And we want to inform you that the amount of funds that a thief can steal will be no more than three times the order price.
And you can also upgrade your Luck and use Luck to fight off thieves!
We decided to leave the rich in their current form (x10), although we will slightly reduce the frequency of their appearance.
A little bit about everything
We will briefly answer the pressing questions:
- New taxis can be purchased for PS or for real
- Only new taxis can be rented out
- Only new taxis can be rented out
- A license for a car is purchased either by the owner or the renter - as agreed
- A license can be sold with a car and put on another
- Funds from the rental will go to the account to which the taxi driver himself receives income (if he does a sloppy job - to withdrawal, if he works - on PS)
- The volume of orders for old taxis WILL INCREASE
- Users who bought a revolver will not be able to rob specific users, only random ones
- New taxis will have an option - TURBO license (payment from a purchase account) - allows you to view orders only of your level
- Old cars will not go anywhere - will remain in the garage.
- Enclave is in the queue for updates - Enclave is still waiting for golden times!
- Automatic payment of wages will be in future updates, as well as deputy chiefs
- All achievements, balances, friends, referrals, personal messages, and everything else - will remain WITHOUT CHANGES
- New cars can only be arranged in new companies, or in those that install an expanded garage
- Funds for hack work will also be credited to the account for withdrawal
- All fines imposed on the user can be paid from the purchase account
We want to wish all users health and financial well-being!
Be with the best project of RUnet!
P.S. If you know of any bot, tell us about it - perhaps this bot is taking your orders!
