[Moller] [Jlab-scicomp-briefs] Please report blocked/degraded web access to helpdesk

[Brad Sawatzky via Jlab-scicomp-briefs]

Dear SciComp Users,

You may have noticed issues access JLab resources from offsite,
particularly web-based systems.  Most of those issues have been
driven by a marked increase in bot traffic of various types resulting
in degraded access and some denial of service (DoS) situations.

The CNI team wants to get the word out and will be posting the
following in the Jlab Weekly, but we thought this would be a
good venue as well.  Please note the last paragraph below and
let the team know of issues so the mitigation systems can be tuned.

---
Jefferson Lab has been moving externally accessible websites behind
the commercial product Cloudflare for the past several months.
Cloudflare counters the increasing amount of bot and AI scraping
automation attempting to connect to these websites. 

For example, from Nov. 17-24, there were 2.91 million accesses to our
external websites with 603,000 identified as bot or AI website
scrapping automation. The number of valid accesses over that period
was roughly 1 million with another 1 million served by Cloudflare
using cached data. This has reduced the load on the lab’s external web
servers, and CST continues to tweak these configurations to reduce the
bot activity as much as possible. 

As these adjustments take place, some legitimate accesses may be
blocked or generate a “prove you are a human” challenge. If you are
legitimately accessing lab websites from offsite or the “JLab Guest”
network and get blocked or challenged, please email the Help Desk at
helpdesk at jlab.org with the full URL you were accessing, any “RayID”
displayed on the block page, and your IP address. This information
will help CST identify the issue and add any needed exceptions.
---

-- Brad (on behalf of the CNI team)

-- 
Brad Sawatzky (he/him), PhD -<>- <brads at jlab.org> -<>- Ph: 757-269-5947
Nuclear Physics IT Lead     -<>- Jefferson Lab/SciComp/F272
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not "Eureka!" but "That's funny..."   -- Isaac Asimov
--

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