During the last couple of weeks my mt-comments.cgi and mt-tb.cgi scripts seemed to have overly heavy usage. On a few occasions, when I saw the errors in my server error logs, I found that both scripts had lost their permissions. I thought the hosting providers had disabled them because of the server-overload these files were causing. Trying to give them permissions didn't work, and I had to re-upload the files. I looked in to renaming them, but that didn't work, and came across a couple of plugins which I've installed that I hope will help to confound the comment spammers.
AcceptCommentsPings is a plugin for switching entries 'Accept Comments/Trackbacks' status from the plugin action menu on the entry listing page using the More Actions drop-down list. You can choose which entries to disable comments and trackbacks for.
BanPing2OldEntry is a JunkFilter plugin for filtering trackback pings to old entries. You can choose how old the entries are before pings are no longer accepted.
The CGI files on my server have been a real headache of late and I'm looking for any means to solve the problems.
I have less than a year now to give up smoking, I promised the kids I'd give up before I turn 50. The count-down has begun.