[extropy-chat] Glitch or censorship?

[BillK]

On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 22:23:27 +0100, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> Speaking of which, Verizon has been blocking mail from Europe.
> I'm not sure what will happen with this message; probably it will come
> through, given that the ExI mail server isn't over here.
> 


ZDNet has a report that email is about to breakdown completely as spam
blacklists stop working due to a new spam method.

<http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5560664.html>


Spam levels are about to skyrocket, according to experts who warned
this week that spammers have developed a new way of delivering their
wares.

According to the SpamHaus Project--an U.K.-based antispam compiler of
blacklists that block 8 billion messages a day--a new piece of
malicious software has been created that takes over a PC. This
"zombie" computer is then used to send spam via the mail server of
that PC's Internet service provider. This means the junk mail appears
to come from the ISP, making it very hard for an antispam blacklist to
block it.
.........

ISPs in the United States may have already been hit. "We've seen a
surge in spam coming from major ISPs. Now all of the ISPs are having
large amounts of spam going out from their mail servers," Linford
said.

This will cause serious problems for the e-mail infrastructure, as it
is impractical to block mail with domain names from large ISPs.
Linford predicts that ISPs will see a growth in the volume of bulk
mail they send and receive over the next two months, with spam levels
rising from 75 percent of all e-mail to around 95 percent within a
year.

"The e-mail infrastructure is beginning to fail," Linford warned.
"You'll see huge delays in e-mail and servers collapsing. It's the
beginning of the e-mail meltdown."

Linford said that ISPs need to act fast to take control of the
problem. "They've got to throttle the number of e-mails coming from
ADSL accounts. They are going to have to act quickly to clean incoming
viruses. ISPs have so much spam--they are too understaffed to call
people up and tell them they have Trojans on their machines. And no
one would know what you're talking about."

Antispam company MessageLabs confirmed Linford's findings.

"This ups the ante in the need for filters," said Mark Sunner, chief
technology officer for MessageLabs. "It makes it more difficult for
people who compile blacklists, which is why spammers are doing this.
It will put more pressure on ISPs to take greater interest in the
traffic they carry and filter at source."
------------------

It's about time too. ISPs could have put a stop to spam years ago.

BillK