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Fighting Spam on the Home Front

Posted by timothy on from the just-post-their-whereabouts-like-child-molesters' dept.

Saint Aardvark writes: "Something interesting from the SecurityFocus Honeypot mailing list: a couple of honeypots for spammers. This message has a link to a how-to page for setting up a Sendmail honeypot to trap spammers, and the status page for a honeypot in Moscow that's trapped spam meant for >1.7 million recipients. The author mentions using a honeypot in conjunction with the Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse -- this seems like a great way identify both spammers and their messages."

And C-Moan writes: "Wireless spam volume is likely to increase in the coming years. But smart use of spam-fighting measures can go a long way toward eliminating the problem. This article provides info about the latest crop of e-mail filters and enhanced mail client options, as well as two roll-your-own programming platforms that could help keep your in-boxes spam free."

3 of 300 comments (clear)

  1. Since the dot.bomb happend... by AltGrendel · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ...I've noticed that spam has increased quite a bit. Like 10x or more.

    --
    The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination

    - Douglas Adams

  2. Re:What am I missing? by codexus · · Score: 0, Redundant

    If that's the case, then why are you using this software?

    --
    True warriors use the Klingon Google
  3. Re:Checksumming -- defeatable? by Amoeba+Protozoa · · Score: 2, Redundant
    Yes. The DCC page states that they use a 'fuzzy' checksumming algorithm that doesn't just checksum the whole message, and that the algorithm is evolving as spam evolves.

    I cannot speak to what approach DCC uses, but razor only picks pieces of a message it believes to be static when computing its SHA1 hash. In the very near future, razor is going to implement Nilsimsa hashes which are 'fuzzy' and should be able to detect everything from spam with minor differentials to mutating e-mail viruses.

    Combined with the new razor trust system, razor is going to be quite the tool; and when used in conjunction with SpamAssassin we'll have quite the arsenal to battle unwanted spam.