The Real Blogger Status

We've been seeing a few queries recently, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , suggesting very subtle account attacks going on. Some reports are about accounts locked (and blogs temporarily offline), because of "suspicious" / "unusual" activity . Other reports are sadder - and mention blogs now owned by another person . When we're able to identify the new blog owner, too many look like intentional hackers. Temporarily offline - or permanently stolen - both are stories that you do not want to tell. Fortunately, both stories can be prevented.

Every time I carry this computer with me, and login to Blogger or Google from another location - and get the repeated demand that I Insert my USB key, and touch the button. I growl just a bit. Then, I consider what using Google 2-Step Verification means, to me. Many blog owners become unhappy, when they use Blogger. I tried using Blogger from my friends computer - and I have to tell them when I setup my Blogger account! or I need to recover control of my blog - and even though I supplied the right phone, and got the recovery email message, I have to check off which Google services I have used, in the last month!! WTF?? These are simply people who do not use Google 2-Step Verification - and have to prove their identity, in a different way.

We see the potential for self induced stress, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , every week. How do I publish a blog, without identifying myself? Then later I forgot my account name / password, and I am not getting any email from "Forgot?"! These are two hypothetical problem reports, that are all too real, for many blog owners.

Some blog owners keep reporting problems with comment replies never posting to their blog - or being received by the comment publisher - in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . When I reply to blog comments through GMail, the reply doesn't show up on my blog. or My readers never get my replies, to their comments! This blog owner is trying to use a feature that should exist - but simply is not available.

We're seeing signs that Blogger is requiring more detail, in the account and blog recovery processes. Even when able to recover account or blog access properly - using a registered email address or telephone number - Google may ask more questions, to verify identity. Some (would be) blog owners,in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , report that more secrets are required. I provided my email address - and after I got the recovery email, I was asked when the email account was setup! and After I gave my home phone, I was asked for a list of my other Google accounts! Apparently, Blogger / Google Security is trying even harder, to prevent blog theft .

We're seeing an increasing number of problem reports, mentioning Google Domains. Google Domains is becoming a popular registrar for new custom domains - and this leads to more problems, reported in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Many reports look like timing problems, from long ago . The most common symptom is the mysterious Redirect Warning. I purchased a Google Domains site, and connected it to Blogger so it redirects my blog to my domain, no problem. The problem is now when accessing the BlogSpot URL, it now shows a redirect warning message, which is killing my web traffic. This blog is not hosted by Blogger and has not been checked for spam, viruses and other forms of malware. How do I publish my blog, and keep my readers, with this confusion?

Recently, we've noted a number of complaints about Blogger commenting, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken .My comments all use a "noreply" email address, instead of my actual email address. How do I have people email their replies to my comments? This appears to be one more way which Blogger is trying to safeguard our Blogger accounts and blogs, from malicious, technically astute blog thieves.

Blog owners continue to forget the account name and / or password of their Blogger accounts, then demand alternate recovery options. Every week, we see the reports in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , claiming that changing their email - or getting a new phone - caused somebody to unfairly lose access to her / his blog. Too many blog owners refuse to understand that the email address and phone number are simply backdoor accesses to their Blogger accounts .

Since 2009, I've been explaining the intricate relationships between Blogger accounts, email addresses, and Google accounts . One of the challenges of logging in to Blogger or Google involves account names and passwords, that may be shared with an email account that is the basis for the Blogger / Google account name. Non GMail based Blogger / Google accounts initially share an account name / email address with the source non GMail email account. If you change a non GMail email address, the Blogger account name will not change. If you delete a non GMail account, the Blogger account is not deleted. Finally, even with shared account names, the passwords between the email account, and the Blogger / Google account, are not automatically shared. With a GMail / Google based Blogger account, on the other hand, both the account name and password will be shared - since it's the same account. If you delete a GMail / Google Blogger account, the Blogger account - and all owned blog...

This week, we're seeing a small flood of reports about abuse / malware classifications, involving various blogs. Some blogs are being classified as an apparently intensified effort to block a long recognised malware source - and others because of a newly detected problem. For a while, we've been noting problem reports discussing blogs with gadgets provided by "abu-farhan". Some hijacks would lead to simple spam displays (of possibly objectionable content), while others led to active malware distribution. The latter, in turn, generated more problem reports here - by people reporting their blogs now under the control of other people, who were not the original blog owners. This week, we see reports that Google has taken action against the "abu-farhan" domain . Blogger now appears to be actively classifying blogs, which contain accessories provided from "abu-farhan", as malicious content hosts - pending review, on a blog by blog basis. Along ...

Even though being the victim of a hacking attack is not (always) the fault of the account / blog owner , the blog owner may have to bear some of the responsibility. Since hacking detection is a fuzzy process, it's not always going to be detected immediately. The previous article discusses what happens when Google does detect a hacking attack - and in some cases reacts too diligently. If Google is not able to detect an attack, in some cases, an attack may be successful.

Our Blogger accounts, and blogs, are under persistent attack by some rather nasty Internet users. Hackers, using other peoples computers, are constantly attempting to "guess" our Blogger passwords, and take control of our Blogger accounts and blogs. Blogger accounts are particularly vulnerable to attack , because too many blog owners Reveal their account names (email addresses) to the world. Base their passwords upon real life details. Publish blogs, where their real life details are visible to the world. Some blog owners think that by using only one computer forever, they should be able to register that one computer as theirs, and require Google to simply deny access to their Blogger / Google accounts, from any other computer. This is a very simple solution - and it's one which is doomed to failure.

Not all blog owners understand the reasons behind the locked Blogger / Google accounts. Even less understand why recovery of locked accounts, and of the blogs owned by the locked accounts, is not immediate. We see the occasional report, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . I had to change the password on my account - and now my blogs are deleted! Why should I wait another "24 to 48 hours" to get my blogs back? This blog owner does not understand the possible reasons for the locked account - and the work that goes on after the account is unlocked. Brute force hacking of our Blogger / Google accounts, by hackers / spammers, who have use of the various botnets in the Internet, is a constant activity. Opposing activity, by the Security teams in Blogger / Google, to not let hackers and spammers take control of our accounts and blogs, is just as constant. Some of the Security activity requires our patience - and blog owners, having to recover their deleted blogs,...

Regularly, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , we advise people about problem code or gadgets in their blogs. Generally, this follows reports by blog owners, that their readers are being redirected to unexpected and unwanted blogs and websites, from their blogs. Sometimes, we get the reply I can't remove the code. Every time I login to Blogger, I am redirected, just as my readers are being treated! When we see the latter complaint, we recognise yet one more blog owner who does not know how to properly protect himself, from malicious code and websites. Most people, who know about Layered Security, know that proper browser security is an essential complement to a properly chosen and maintained anti malware filter.

Some Blogger blog owners use their Blogger blogs as the center of their peer to peer networking life. Many blog readers are expected to post comments - and to leave their email addresses, as part of their message or profile, to allow direct contact. Long ago, I used the email address of my commenters, as part of an easy "Contact Me" form , on this blog. Recently, we've been noting that Blogger comments don't always include a useful email addresses - many comments simply describe the commenter as noreply-comment@blogger.com Not all blog owners - and readers - appreciate this change. When I leave a comment using my google profile, it isn't linking my profile with my email address. How do I get my email address properly displayed? and Why do so many comments, published to my blog, show the email address of "noreply-comment@blogger.com"? How do I email my readers?

Ever since Blogger started using Google accounts to authenticate Blogger account access, blog owners have had trouble maintaining access to their accounts and their blogs. Not all Blogger blog owners understand - and less accept - the measures that Blogger has taken, to prevent malicious activity , by unknown persons who would use Internet obscurity to hijack their accounts , and their blogs. Every day, we see numerous complaints in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , about inability to recover account access. And, we see occasional (not occasional enough) reports about blogs now owned by people who are not personally known by the rightful blog owner. Blogger is continually improving their account recovery, authentication, and account hijack prevention policies . Unfortunately, as they improve in one area, they make things more difficult in another.

In terms of Blogger problems, which occur seemingly randomly and have no obvious user solution, I can't think of too many that bring more dread into peoples hearts than 403 Forbidden That message is actually where I started this blog - many, many years ago . It's come up, in discussion, several times . The message "403 Forbidden" is literally a response by a computer somewhere, saying that you are not permitted to access this computer . For Blogger / Google customers, it generally has a slightly different origin.

Recently, we've seen that Google, StopBadware.Org, and various other services, are stepping up the fight against malware distributed by Blogger blogs. Not only blogs actively distributing malware, and blogs linking directly to web sites that distribute malware, are affected. In one identified case, a blog that linked to a "clean" web site, that linked to another web site where malware was distributed , was locked. In other cases, blogs that use dodgy accessories are being targeted. It seems now that many of the reported URLs have a 'BlogLinker.com' code snippet in them- *please* stay away from this widget in the future; it is completely nefarious.