For years, an unknown number of users behind TOR exit nodes have been abusing dnswl.org resources. Apparently for every email they receive, they query dnswl.org via the web, using the search interface open to all users. This causes considerable load on our webservers, the database servers, and our network infrastructure, sometimes causing significant delays for legitimate users.
Despite numerous attempts to a) get these TOR users to notice the abusive nature of their behavior and b) returning empty data to them using the exit address list provided by the TOR project, the abuse did not stop. On the contrary, for every action on our side, there was a workaround on the abusers side.
Obviously, there is only a limited amount of things we can do about it, as long as some people and institutions willingly accept anti-social behavior by providing TOR exit nodes, and we only have a limited amount of time to waste — especially to access data which is readily available in a variety of ways and formats.
As of today, we are redirecting accesses from TOR users to our search interface to https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq-abuse.html.en, hoping that they will realize the abusive and anti-social behavior and start using our data in one of the accepted and supported methods, which require far, far less resources.
Dear TOR users, if the data is so valuable to you, then why do you insist on using the least efficient way to use it?