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Can Email Be Saved?
from the thinking-inside-the-box dept
Infoworld went out and asked six "experts" if they were starting from scratch how they would build an email system to prevent spam - and the answers aren't anything new. They tend to fall into three categories: identify/authenticate users, shift certain functions away from email or sue, sue, sue. Of course, people are trying all these things already and so far... still plenty of spam. Also, in the intro to the article, it says that they asked an "unrepentant spammer" for his take on how to stop spam - but whoever it is, his response doesn't appear in the article. I searched around the InfoWorld site and I can't find it at all. In fact, I hadn't realized just how confusing the InfoWorld site is until now. It's pretty much impossible to find stuff unless something from the outside points you directly in to an article. Perhaps before they save email, they should save their own site. Anyway, if anyone can find the spammer's take, please let us know via the comments so I can adjust this post.
Reader Comments
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Spam Solution..
http://cr.yp.to/qmail.html
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Internet/Servers/Mail/Q mail/
Its not the the tools are not developed... its that the protocol needs to change without getting hijacked by commercial interrests.
to see how 6 'experts' (who are all nicely friendly with their commercial tie-ins) miss the point.. read up on qmail and wonder.
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Re: Spam Solution..
This PDF file includes a couple of extra sidebars, including an interview with "Direct Marketer" Scott Richter.
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E-mail spam / junk mail solution
The one solution that would be easy to implement without changing any of the e-mail standards is through ISP metering. This is not to be confused by charging e-mail postage for each message, this is a charge levied against heavy users of e-mail for the amount of mail generated. The main problem with e-mail is the ease of generating millions of e-mails at the cost of practically nothing. However, if it costs the organizations for generating billions of bytes, most of them are going to find other ways to promote their products because the cost versus the effectiveness takes a drastic turn against them. Easy to implement? How hard is it to count the number of packets generated from a source looking at a specific port? The trick is to set it up at the ISP level to reduce spoofing possibilities, which can be handled through hardware address acknowledgements. Impact on the typical user? Make a baseline amount free so that the typical mom and pop user never comes close to the amount they send. Even then, the cost per MB can be relatively small because we are just after the big spam generators, not the typical e-mailer. There are many considerations needed to make the practice fair, but the possibilities are available.
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How to save email
Long before Word.doc, VBS, OE, and spam was born, there was email and there was viruses. Then email was the benign messenger it was meant to be and SOHO viruses were delivered by dirty floppies. Then he "who would be king" decided to change the face of word processing, email and messaging. The security makers warned of dire results which were ignored as much then as they are today. The result has been world wide chaos where spam, worms, spyware, adware, malware and keylogging is a daily routine that takes every ounce of fun out of computing.
The government who created the Internet is not going to intercept. the PACs are not going to intercede, and FCC won't intrude as long as the radio wavelength isn't disturbed.
We got what we asked for: a lawless society. Now it is up to us to "fix" what should have been stopped ten years ago starting with spam. We can't control what others do, but we can join together to accomplish one simple solution. Reducing the size of email to 30K, banning all html and stationary in email, and banning all attachments except .gif will go a long way toward reducing the noise on the internet. Closing open relays. And of course, exceptions should be made for secure business messaging.
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