https and spam

[typomaniac]

Not exactly sure if this is in the right category so apologies ahead of time if not. What I'm curious about is will a secure server prevent forms from being filled out by bots? I once put up a site forum and it sat unused for a while and when I decided to put the finals on setting it up there were thousands of registrations that had taken place(not by people)and spammed it up. Even with captcha this all took place. If I ran the forum via an https location would this be of any avail for preventing such incidents?

[swa66]

Nope.

Properly done HTTPS gives you:
- encryption the packets exchange while they are underway between the client and the server. This makes intercepting traffic and understanding what's in it virtually impossible if done right.
- identification and authentication of the endpoints. Usually the server is only authenticating itself to the visiting client (the reverse is a *lot* harder but it can technically be done - regular websites don't have a chance.). This makes MitM attacks much harder togo by unnoticed for end-users.

To cut down on spam: nah, not going to be any significant hurdle. You might see a temp drop but it's not going to make a difference in the long run.

Check out stopforumspam is you want something free that works: [stopforumspam.com...]