Re: [Asrg] An Anti-Spam Heuristic

Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com> Thu, 13 December 2012 15:24 UTC

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From: Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com>
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Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2012 07:24:01 -0800
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Comments: In reply to Rich Kulawiec <rsk@gsp.org> "Re: [Asrg] An Anti-Spam Heuristic" (Dec 13, 9:03am)
References: <SNT002-W143FB9A867C92FA80D90E04C54E0@phx.gbl> <20121213140359.GA2187@gsp.org>
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On Dec 13,  9:03am, Rich Kulawiec wrote:
}
} > A number of heuristics include increasing the computation required to
} > send and receive an email, for example one to a few minutes of computation
} > per email on desktop computers.
} 
} I don't think you can do this.  I think you're trying to drown someone
} who owns the ocean, and that the attempt is futile.  But perhaps you have
} an approach that's eluded others, that overcomes the obvious problems,
} and I just don't see it yet due to insufficient caffeine intake.

Generating "cash" with computing resources means they can print all the
money they want.  For a pay-to-play scheme to have any hope of working,
it needs to be based on a resource that can be controlled from outside.

Which leads to the same discussion we had four years ago.  Today is the
anniversary of http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-irtf-asrg-postage-00
which never went went anywhere beyond that.

It is acknowledged that the bad guys can steal postage from a zombied
system almost as easily as they can steal compute resources, but it's
easier to discover and react to the theft of something that doesn't
invisibly regenerate.