Did I just get spied on? (15)
Hey stackers,
so the past couple days random stats have been showing up in my CPV lab, even the camps that are no longer active... I'm getting clicks from countries I don't even target.
And today the camp which has been most profitable for me is performing like shit.
Are these signs that my camp has been swiped?
your ads might have been picked by spytools andddddd you know....
Post your images and ad copies to this thread. I'll take a look at them and see if I've seen them around the spy tools 
hahahaha
shiet... I guess its part of the game, should do a better job protecting myself next time. maybe tuesday was just a bad performing days, oh well gotta roll with the punches I guess.
There are many things you can do to protect yourself from spying winny, but many of them are quite technical. Additionally it's part of the game that will never go away so better to spend your efforts moving forward and being ahead of the pack.
Yeah, don't let it slow you down. I see my banners and landers all over the place, like everyone else said, just part of the game.
Try to make sure your campaigns are bulletproof, this way even if someone spies on you it won't really matter. For one of my campaigns there are so many levels of sophistication that even if someone spies on my ads, I HIGHLY doubt they'd be able to rip them. For example, even if someone manages to steal my images, they would never guess how I target. If someone takes my images and figures out how I target they won't be able to duplicate my technical setup. Even if they figure that out, they won't be able to duplicate my bidding strategy. They also wouldn't know how to handle it if they got banned. They also wouldn't know how I manage to stay on offers for long. My point is that you need to figure out a unique system that is nearly impossible to duplicate. I know that many people have spied on my campaigns, but it just doesn't matter that much. Figure out your competitive advantage.
thanks for the advice everybody, will learn from this n grow.
Yeah, it's pretty standard to have other affiliates snooping around. One thing you definitely want to do is make sure your CPV Lab is secure. There's not much to be gleaned from looking at your banners and landing pages, but a lot to be found in your stats.
Originally Posted by Finch
^^ From Finch's post
How can I make sure my CPV lab is secure? sorry bout the late reply havnt been on the forums lately.
CPVLab protection:
Job #1 is to make sure you have a secure password. Your password should be UNIQUE (don't use it anywhere else), long (7-8 characters are crackable), and non-obvious.
Ideally, use a password generator like LastPass. Failing that, you can generate a pretty darn secure password by using three dictionary words chosen randomly (or as randomly as you can) with random numbers in between them.
Did I mention DON'T USE THIS ANYWHERE ELSE?
Second point - your server with CPVLab on it shouldn't have any other complex software on there. Landing pages are fine, but do not, repeat do not, run anything like Wordpress on the same box. The more pieces of complex software you have on your system, the more chance someone will find a way in. Absolutely #1 culprit for this is an out-of-date Wordpress install, but Rails, forum software, and pretty much anything else with more than 100 lines of code to it are vulnerable. CPVLab, simple landing pages, and nothing else are your best approach.
After that, you're into general sysadmin server security stuff. Here are some basic tips for things you should definitely do.
After that, things get more advanced quickly. One thing I'd recommend for most people is to find out what software you're running on your server - Web server program, version of PHP, FTP server if you're running one (pro tip - don't. SFTP is better and safer), database. Find out what versions you have, then every so often Google for "name of software version number vulnerability". If you find anything that sounds worrying, contact your server admins and politely ask if this could be a problem! Or, if you installed it yourself, upgrade everything whenever a vulnerability is found.
If you're running serious volume, you should almost certainly hire a professional security person to do an audit on your system - basically, once their fee will be less than a couple of days of your profits. They can do things like install IPTables, patch obscure vulnerabilities, and really protect your assets.
... Hmm, I guess I should probably write this up as a tutorial, shouldn't I?
two small hints for extra cpvlabs protection....
a) rename admin to something else
b) rename the login.php so the culprit won't even know where to log in at
I would say most guys are admin as username and login.php, all the person needs is to figure out your password. Mixing up the two other variables is an easy way to add barriers.
Thanks for the tips!
While trying to change my PW, I noticed there is a "failed login" option under settings in CPV lab.
It records all the times someone tried to log in and failed, I thought it was a pretty useful feature... lets u check who from which country is trying to hack you!
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