Current spambot attack on freenode (and elsewhere)

Many of you will have noticed that over the last few days there has been an extensive spambot wave on freenode, and on other networks.

The fairly aggressive spambot attacks link to websites that we believe to have been set up to impersonate freenode volunteers, and that we believe to contain offensive and incorrect information intended to defame and libel members of the freenode volunteer team.

Naturally, the matter has been escalated to law enforcement and both the project and the individual volunteers concerned have sought legal advice in connection with the current attack.

Due to the nature of the attack, this is of course causing serious emotional distress on the part of the affected volunteers and their immediate family and social circles, as well as the rest of the volunteer team.

On behalf of the entire team, I would like to express thanks to those of you who have reached out with words of encouragement and support, and especially those of you from other IRC networks who have invested your time and efforts in trying to help mitigate and support.

I would also like to apologise to those users and channels (on and off freenode) who are affected by the spam.