5.3 Filters

This section is less about technical security and more about social norms and conformity. Since all channels are publicly accessible, anyone can join and contribute to the conversation. Unfortunately, there are users who actively seek conflict or want to spread radical ideologies. Filters are therefore indispensable, as it is impossible to anticipate all the ways users may try to bypass the system or security measures to cause trouble. Visiting an administrative channel reveals what happens in the background, but administrators can hardly react as quickly as new malware and bots spread. Many illegal connections remain undetected. This is where filter scripts come into play, for example using regular expressions to provide warnings, alerts, and enforce blocks. On the connection level, additional automated scripts ensure security in IRC channels. They allow filtering of all incoming and outgoing users, bots, and drones based on criteria such as IP address, nickname, or ident. Server owners can also maintain a blacklist, collecting suspicious IPs, comparing them on connection attempts, and blocking them. A comprehensive example script is provided for review.

Filter script:

Download Filter Script