This botnet’s purpose is to add referrer links to your Google Analytics, in the hopes that the webmaster or site owner will click on the link. They will then be exposed to an internet virus. Please do not click on any referrer spam link, as it is dangerous. I always copy the link and paste it into Google search first, to see if the site is dangerous.
After a long while your htaccess might get a tad long. My favourite htaccess checker only processes files up to 5,000 lines. Often this is due to lots of comments, which I encourage. Let us cover some ways you can shorten your htaccess:
Combine your user agents/referrers
If you have multiple user agent or referrers that have similar names, combine them into a single statement,
from:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*Blackboard\ Safeassign [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*BlackWidow [OR]
to:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*Black(board\ Safeassign|Widow) [OR]
