ietf-asrg
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [Asrg] A Vaccine- not a cure or treatment- for Spam (apologies for repost- typo fixed)

2003-04-23 08:10:28

Anything that reduces the amount of spam actually
reaching inboxen will have an impact on the spammers business model.

  I've seen no evidence to show that that's true.

We'll, it's "clearly true"(tm) since while the cost of spamming may be very
low, anything that reduces the proportion that actually gets through
increases the cost per unit delivered. How significant this is to the
spammer will (of course) depend on the actual numbers.


This is a problem where reducing the severity of the "symptoms"
actually has an effect (how big?)  on the cause of the "disease".

  Based on my experience, I believe that only about 10% of delivery
attempts by spammers end up being accepted by the MTA.  I believe that


Ah yes, "how big" I said. I was just suggesting that a naive disease
analogy isn't helpful.


It's not clear that the mail transport system posesses an immune
system.
Until it does, development of a vaccine would be premature.

  Multiple anti-spam solutions distribute signatures of spam, to
"vaccinate" other systems.  

I'm aware of that.

But the spammers are still acting as
"typhoid mary's", and creating more problems.

No - I've received shedloads of spam (much of it offering to sell me CDs
with millions of email addresses) and I don't believe I'm in any more
danger of turning into a spammer than I was before.
Although, come to think of it, this is probably a way in which a particular
sort of spam might indeed behave like a disease.

It's still not a useful analogy.






--
_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg