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A radical idea on spam control 1

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paleogryph

paleogryph

MIS
Apr 11, 2002
144
US
A radical idea on spam control:
Why do we treat email differently than ip packets?
Why not treat emails as if they were any other kind of traffic that needed to be filtered in the most robust way possible.

Yes, I use SpamAssassin and have a blacklist a mile long...

But why not block everything and then unblock only known legit addresses.
Users complain? So what!
The days of email innocence are long gone...
Domains are hijacked by spammers, headers manipulated and filtering rules bent.

You want an example:

Spammers will always be ahead of the curve.

Filter mail based on whether the address is in your address book.
If someone wants to send you a mail and they are not in your book there are other methods to confirm legitimacy.



>Think for yourself<
...or someone else will do it for you.
 
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Several programs do just what you're suggesting. It's the &quot;other ways to confirm legitimacy&quot; that's important. The most common method I've seen is sending back an image containing a word written in funky texts and with alot of noise around the picture. Then the user has to email back that word. That works well... but... there are alot of mass mailings which are solicited that this blocks, and if I'm waiting for something important there's no way I'm putting a potential employer/customer through these kind of hoops.

-Rob
 
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I like the idea. Personally I'd like to see something like an auto reply saying that you should contact me by phone so I can accept your email (unless the person is already on my safe list). Once I get the person on the phone I can add them to my safe list and all their emails get accepted with the exception of those stupid emails with word and powerpoint attachements! :)

Gary Haran
==========================
 
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I was under the impression that people like yahoo simply block any emails going out to more than say 20 people, as I rarely got spam in my yahoo account. Shame they stopped my password from working and would no longer let me into my account.

Still, the best laid plans of mice and men...

And if they don't do that, is it an idea hence stopping any mass mailings, that's gotta cut down the spam.
 
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GreenTeeth:
Even if they did block emails with more than 20 recipients, it wouldn't stop more than the dumbest spammers.

The newest spam filters check for similar messages going to large numbers of recipients in its system. That's why you nou see spam with random words in the subject line.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions: TANSTAAFL!
 
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Most of the spam we get are from those newly registered goofy domains. You know the ones I'm talking about. I've noticed lately that quite a lot of spam comes from domains with the .il (israel?) tld. Also from domains in asia. Less and less coming from hotmail, aol, msn, yahoo and cs accounts, but I still see those now and then.

It depends on your companies situation. If you work for a company that waits on unsolicited emails from prospective customers and that is your main channel of communications, then good luck... However, where I work, I get more complaints about spam than I do about emails that don't get through because they've been blocked, and most of the mails that get blocked are non-work related anyway. When customers/vendors/partners really want to communicate with each other they will call/conference call on the phone anyway.

I don't think legislation is going to do much to stem the tide here, I think filtering/blocking will become tighter as the number of domains/people on the net increase.



>Think for yourself<
...or someone else will do it for you.
 
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Sorry sleipnir214, but if it means politicians getting involved in the internet, I'd rather take the spam thanks.
Personally I'd prefer them to do do the things they said they would do if we elected them.
 
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guestgulkan

Seriously, did you read the link? It was about governments realizing they were running unsecured open relays and buckling down on securing their own systems. You'd rather take the spam than that?

::looks around to make sure he's not on slashdot::

-Rob
 
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&quot;It was about governments realizing they were running unsecured open relays and buckling down on securing their own systems&quot;


&quot;Officials from the United States and four other countries...&quot;
&quot;The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, joined by consumer protection officials from Canada, Japan, Australia and Chile...&quot;
&quot;asked the owners of the computers to fix their e-mail servers...&quot;
&quot;The FTC and other law-enforcement agents identified 1,000 suspected open relays and asked their operators to fix them...&quot;
&quot;In a letter translated into 11 languages&quot;


My interpretation of the article is that this &quot;body&quot; of 5 cross-border organisations have identified a number of open relays and contacted their owners. The implication is that these relays are neither owned nor operated by the governments - otherwise why was the email translated into 11 languages?

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[pc][ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]
 
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Ok. I will consider myself corrected concerning the particular article.
However, I still believe the following:

1. (The) government should not get too involved on the subject of spam.
True - Spam is an annoyance. It is not the end of the world.
There are far more dangerous threats to Joe Public that Governments should be getting on with.

2. Politicians should be kept away from the internet.
 
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point 1 - hmmm...not sure...yes there are better things to be getting on with... but if they can do something to stop the deluge, I'm reasonably supportive (I doubt that anti-spam legislation will impact negatively on me) - although I would prefer an independant internet body to pursue anti-spam techniques instead

point 2 - absolutely. couldn't agree more!

Regards, Marc.
 
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Maybe we should just create a legislative body for the internet and let it do all the work :)

As long as we require them to know more than buzzwords we'll be pretty sure we aren't just getting more politicians (for a while at least) and they may actually do things that make sense...

-Tarwn

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Get better results for your questions: faq333-2924
Frequently Asked ASP Questions: faq333-3048
 
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Can I have the job of releasing the hounds whenever a member uses a sentence which is all buzzwords and contains no substance?

-Rob
 
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Hmmm...Creating an internet legislative body...

That would be a proactive paradigm shift. Let give it a GUI and make it both .Net and Bluetooth compatible.

;-)
 
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An internet legislative body.

I'll agree, but - the body has to based in Anarctica, and must abide abide by all international treaties with respect to Anarctica.

No canidate can use email as part of their campaign. They are cannot use telephones.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
 
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I say let them use email, make one of the rules instant boot from the race if they email a non-personal letter to more than 20 people...actually I take that back, the first thing I would do if I was running and that was the case would be to get a TV commercial, than hire a company to spam everyone with the names of my competitors :p

Sorry top have dragged this OT

-Tarwn
 
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Could there be a legal issue involved in blocking spam?

Does anyone know if it legal for the post office to not deliver mail simply because they think that the addresse might not want it?

If it is illegal for the post office to do that - Can a spammer with a smart lawyer apply the same argument to Email??
 
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