Re: Unauthorized use of SMTP Server

Kevin Miller ( (no email) )
Tue, 29 Jul 1997 11:06:59 -0400

> Kevin, really what I was hinting at was just how easy it is to 'spoof'
the
> origin of an email and that's why I suggested that a new protocol was
needed.
Right.. A user/pass combination could be added, and this would combat
single users spamming. Once you get to organizations like CyberPromo,
though, it gets a little more difficult... If the whole "righteous"
community would put into place a new RFC spec, the SPAMmers would at some
point be forced to connect to a machine that would clearly identify the
host it came from and the IP could be retrieved. However, that's really
already being done today...

> Once that was in place it would be far easier to make a spammers life
> difficult by building your own banned site list. Perhaps when spam
arrived
> it could be forwarded to a robot (by the administrator) and this would
> automatically strip the incoming IP address or some other key information
> and add it to your local banned list.
How do you identify SPAM though? A lot of end-users will still get it...
Further, if it increases at its current pace, administrators are going be
spending more and more time to sort through junk.

> Not easy, I know since IP addresses can be allocated dynamically and you
> don't (necessarily) want to ban the whole of AOL!
Exactly...

> Personally I think that getting the lawyers involved would just be
another
> gravy train for them, without much benefit to users.
I don't think lawyers would need to get involved...

Kevin
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Kevin C. Miller Custom Software Design & Network Consulting
CEO, FreshWater, Inc. kevin@devworld.com
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