Re: [Asrg] Cutting down spam load

>>AND, don't forget, another big benefit is blocking NOT ONLY JUST spam, but 
>>also
>>viruses/worms/trojans.  In many cases, those are sent from 'legitimate' 
>>senders
>>and without hijacking open relays... so things like spf wouldn't help 
>>(even IF
>>you could realistically speaking block 'non-verifiable' senders, which is way
>>less than clear) but my permissions-list approach would block probably 
>>80-90% or
>>more of such malicious stuff, too.  By blocking (by default) ALL attachments
>>coming from people you don't normally expect to get attachments from, you're
>>blocking malicious code, too.  Sure, you'll open up the "attachments allowed"
>>window for people you trust and authorize to send those, but that's going to
>>typically be a small percentage of the people you'd normally maybe receive
>>(ordinary) E-mails from.

>We do research into fighting spam, not viruses and worms. How does blocking 
>attachements going to stop spammers? 

Although

  1)  some spammers have been known to install spambots and zombies in unwitting 
users' systems, and those are installed via attachments;

and

  2)  text-as-image attachments are occasionally used by spammers to circumvent 
content/keyword scanners,

the real point is that by this one permission-based whitelist approach, we can 
use one, cohesive, straightforward, and incrementally deployable approach to 
take a big bite out of BOTH spam AND viruses/trojans... arguably the two biggest 
and most pressing problems we have on the Internet today.

Meanwhile, in so doing, we'll also help prevent the irresponsible and wasteful 
growth of (unnecessary) HTML-burdened E-mail, which all by itself could be 
expected to perhaps make as much as a 30-50% or more reduction in the total 
E-mail load, net-wide.

Gordon Peterson                  http://personal.terabites.com/
1977-2002  Twenty-fifth anniversary year of Local Area Networking!
Support the Anti-SPAM Amendment!  Join at http://www.cauce.org/
12/19/98: Partisan Republicans scornfully ignore the voters they "represent".
12/09/00: the date the Republican Party took down democracy in America.

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