For the last thirty hours or so, this blog – and I suspect other WordPress blogs – have been under persistent attack from a spammer operating from a range of IP addresses in Brazil.

Although I have anti-spam filters active, they have gradually attacked those to the point where their spam is now breaking through into comments to articles here.

As a temporary measure, I am therefore requiring that anyone wishing to make a comment will have to log in, and I am blocking all comments on articles older than 14 days.

I am extremely sorry to have to do this, but until this individual stops, I will have to leave these measures in place. Normal service will resume as soon as possible.

If you are unable to post a comment and wish to do so, please email me (address in the About page) and I will happily do so for you.

Update (0750 UTC 22 Jan 18):

After twelve hours of restrictions on comments, I tried removing those restrictions. Within a short period, the spam attack resumed, so I regret that I have re-applied the requirement to log in before making a comment. I have, though, enabled commenting on older articles.

I suspect that this is not the only blog being subjected to this attack. If you run a blog, you will probably be doing the same too. You have my sympathies.

Update (0720 UTC 23 Jan 18):

This attack seems to have moved on, and I have now removed restrictions on comments.