[thelist] Serious antispam measures

[Jeniffer C. Johnson]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ken Schaefer [mailto:ken at adOpenStatic.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 1:12 AM
> To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> Subject: Re: [thelist] Serious antispam measures
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> From: "Jeniffer C. Johnson" <lead at offlead.com>
> Subject: RE: [thelist] Serious antispam measures
> 
> 
> : So, immediate relief via bandaids aside, what CAN be done, long-term, to
> : resolve the spam issue? I know that there are other individuals who have
> it
> : worse than I do, and I know that the bigger picture is even worse. I
> first
> : got a good grasp of the Big Picture during the Swen Virus outbreak that
> hit
> : sff.net/Greyware last year
> :
> (http://www.internetweek.com/security02/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=152005
> 76
> : ). Jeffry and Steve had much to say in the aftermath of the attack about
> the
> : long-term affects of such traffic to the system as a whole.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> It is definately much worse. :-)
> 
> Microsoft has put out a press release indicating that it is intercepting
> more than 1 billion pieces of spam a day (!) on it's email sites
> (hotmail.com, msn.com etc). AOL also recently put out a press release
> indicating that it was stopping more than 780 million pieces of spam a
> day.
> 

Oh, I absolutely understand. *G* I do wish I could share the ng post, as it
provided a great explanation of the exponential nature of this problem,
detailed in a manner that was quite easy to understand. Very much gave a
good "whole" picture of a problem most people experience tip-of-the-iceberg
fashion. At least, that's the affect it had on me.

> I think there are quite a few different proposed solutions. However
> developing something that'll work, be backwards compatible (so that you
> can
> still receive mail from older systems), be easy to implement (so
> admins/users wont have hurdles to switching over), educating users on
> switching over and *importantly* not having their identities stolen, and
> have mail server software, or client systems ported over, and setting up
> an
> central trust infrastructure, will be a challenge.
> 

This is what I'm most interested in, and not only from the standpoint of
someone who is sick to death of trying to keep a half-step ahead of the
spammers in an effort to keep myself from being overly frustrated by the
sheer volume of what I receive. I'm genuinely curious as to what measures
would need to be taken overall, to try to change the current system, and how
we go about implementing such change. I'm not a big company, just a little
freelancer, but I do hold some influence of some clients, friends and
family...same as most of the people who post on this and similar lists. We
each have our own sphere of influence, and use that to help affect changes
(like urging people to upgrade to better browsers, to code to specs, etc).
Basically, I want to know what _I_ can do. Aside from, of course, joining a
vigilante group to go after spammers (though sometimes I entertain that
little fantasy to while away a dull afternoon ;-) ). Besides, I like chewing
on a good problem of affecting social change. 

But first, I assume, some good plan would need to be hashed out as to what
course of action is the appropriate one to work towards.

Jeniffer