Old Freeper Accounts Hijacked?

Original Content | 03/16/2025 | By Laz A. Mataz

[Lazamataz]

I've noticed, over the years, that very old Free Republic accounts, accounts that have been inactive for months or years, suddenly reactivate.... but their politics are suddenly suspect.

Be they Zeeper-oriented (that is, super-favorable to Ukraine) or, conversely, super-favorable to Russia, or even suddenly-liberal... these accounts reactivate with a flurry of posts that are contrary to conservatism.

Are these real Freepers who have had a change of heart about their politics? Are these real Freepers who feel the need to jump on the forum with propaganda and support for one side or the other per the Ukraine/Russia war?

Or are these hijacked accounts?

People will recall some time back, quite a few accounts of active Freepers were hijacked. It created a bit of a problem. When all was said and done, the accounts were returned to their rightful owners, and the site owner (and his moderator crew) pointed out that their passwords were very easy to guess. He instructed people to have stronger passwords.

I also have a friend on Facebook who no longer participates in the forum, but still reads it, who has seen a Freeper posting who he happens to know has been dead for more than a decade.

The problem is, we have far too insecure a login process, and enemies of the forum have been exploiting that.

At the login page, you can attempted unlimited login attempts. This will allow simple brute-force password cracking.

Also, the Forget Password option sends an email with your password in clear text. Emails can easily be sniffed with the right techniques. Passwords can easily be cracked that way.

My suggestions to mitigate these critical security concerns are:

1. -- Limit login attempts to five, after which the account is suspended until unlocked. What unlocking consists of can be anything. One suggestion is that the account is auto-disabled for a day. That means a hacker will only get five brute-force attempts in any given 24 hour period.
2. -- Install two-factor authentication, in which a text number is sent to a phone the user possesses.
3. -- Emails for Forget Password should not send the actual password, but instead, a link to a page on FR that allows a reset of the password.

These relatively-simple security changes will stop account-hijacking.

[Chickensoup]

I think he means that there are less and less participant supporters

[AppyPappy]

Oddly, my conservative friends go 50-50 on Ukraine. The local Democrat HQ has a sign supporting Ukraine along with several dozen for the narrative of the month.

[Danie_2023]

“I love the platform. the best for short answers or long interesting conversations. I pray that the back rooms get upgraded while the WYSIWYG stay the same. With perhaps a yes no or ability to respond to the whole thread.

Tell me wasn’t there a visit counter to the threads back in the day???”

I don’t know about a visit counter. Haven’t seen that. But I don’t think pressuring the owners to “make changes” by a few is a good idea. If the owners wanted to make changes, they could always post it as a poll and get users to vote yes or no. Otherwise, it’s moot. It has worked well for many years like it is, right? Leave it be, IMHO.

[palmer]

I think you can rule out the long term monthly donors. Some of us take a break from time to time but keep the monthly going.

[palmer]

A few became gay.

I thought they were born gay.

[palmer]

Two factor authentication can also be accomplished by sending to an email address, however, this is less secure. Still, better than nothing.

HATE two factor. HATE is not a strong enough word.

[Openurmind]

Well from what I am reading in this thread, if the idea is to get rid of trolls then EVERYONE is a troll. Because every user here has several others they label and consider as trolls because they do not think in the box exactly like they want them to think. So if all the “trolls” were banned there would be no one left...

Cause everyone here is a troll to someone else here from what it looks like.

[Nifster]

Ain’t that the truth

[palmer]

This site is now in the Cloud

I thought they were using their own hardware at a hosting center. If so, that's not cloud.

[Openurmind]

“I thought they were using their own hardware at a hosting center. If so, that’s not cloud. “

Hey there old friend... Haven’t talked to you in awhile. Hope you have been well.

Not anymore, it is a misconception. When they “moved the server” it went to 3rd party hosting with a cloud server provider.

https://www.wmtips.com/tools/info/freerepublic.com

[captmar-vell]

I’ve noticed curious postings and I believe there is something more going on here.

I’ve also noticed what to me at least has the appearance of AI generated responses.

[MikelTackNailer]

"This site is now in the Cloud"

I thought they were using their own hardware at a hosting center. If so, that's not cloud.

Hold on; I'll take care of it.

[Taxman]

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?

[9YearLurker]

That makes sense too.

[Pollard]

[Lazamataz]

Well from what I am reading in this thread, if the idea is to get rid of trolls then EVERYONE is a troll. Because every user here has several others they label and consider as trolls because they do not think in the box exactly like they want them to think. So if all the “trolls” were banned there would be no one left... Cause everyone here is a troll to someone else here from what it looks like.

Shut up, troll.

😁

[AppyPappy]

Well, first they were born straight but then they became born gay.

[Danie_2023]

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?”

That has always been my ‘go-by’.

And if it does break, DIY it (the least expensive way possible). Hey, we ‘broke folks’ have to do what we gotta do any way we can.

[AppyPappy]

*** ASH ALERT ***

is now

*** LAZ ALERT ***

[Lazamataz]

Perfect.