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SpamCop To Be Sold To IronPort?
Iphtashu Fitz writes "InfoWorld is reporting that SpamCop is about to be sold to IronPort Systems for an undisclosed amount of money. According to the InfoWorld article, the announcement will be made on Nov. 25, and will include IronPort investing $1 million in SpamCop to keep the service up and running. IronPort apparently makes use of the SpamCop DNS blocklist in their spam filtering products and this move is seen as a way to help support SpamCop and formalize their relationship. IronPort is reported as stating that the SpamCop blocklist data will remain freely available to the public."
InfoWorld is reporting that SpamCop is about to be sold to IronPort Systems for an undisclosed amount of money...
Hey, I don't know about you, but no price is too small for that great selection of penis enlargement offers they must have at their fingertips.
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Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
What about spamcop's mail service? What will happen to people who pay ~$30/year for zero, and yeah, I mean zero, spam? Accounts sold?
I currently have a SpamCop account, it's my primary address (though I also use Spam Gourmet's aliasing service). Does anyone know if I should start looking for a new email address?
Spamcop is one of the blocklists that has been under perpetual attack by spammers. Recently, spammers started a rather major DDoS against spamcop and several other services.
Antispam services that have limited operating resources (such as the now defunct monkeys.com and osirusoft.com) -- while extremely useful services, simply didn't have the means to withstand major attacks. Those two services had to be shut down because the owners could not deal with the onslaught. Spamhaus, and probably now Spamcop will be able to withstand attacks.
Kudos to any company that joins in on the spam fighting effort. Also worth mentioning are the good folks at Easynet, who have been running top-notch anti-abuse DNSBLs that are available to the public.
However, I would never use the SpamCop blacklist for completely blocking e-mail - only filtering. Why? Any one "possible spam" message processed through its system lands the server on the blacklist - which means one user that sends out a spam message (or even a message that someone thinks is spam or unwanted) that is then processed as spam through SpamCop puts the mail server onto the blacklist. The server will not be removed for a minimum of 24 hours.
This means that systems that are active against thwarting spammers can still end up on the blacklist for 24 hours (or longer - you can report e-mail for up to 3 days after it was sent).
Will the Deal for an undisclosed amount of money be finalized in the undisclosed location that The Vice President was kept in?
This sounds like a very good thing, IronPort will benifit by being able to tightly integrate SpamCop into hardware and SpamCop will become better due to less downtime due to DDoS attacks
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Tonight's lucky ingredient is... Spam!
hehe... Iron Chef... That's Japanese for 'mod this +1 Wacky!'
Please try to remember that the end-recipient of spam is not the only one who is hurt by spam.
Relax, everytime one service/company gets bought by a bigger one, folks flip out. Yes, sometimes larger companies have sinister motives but most of the time it is in the best interests of both companies and the industry. Corporate backing == more money == better products (hopefully)
This comment seems oddly familiar
I'm even putting karma on the line to say so.
Ugh....I can't believe the couth of some people...
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Here's the deal.
/. article, but I'm feeling lazy right now).
SpamCop works on fighting spam. They get an investor.
Happy day!
Um...I've read several posts that say IronPorts is a good company, so no worries about current customers being abused - good, so my internal gut feelings about privacy issues are abated.
I haven't used SpamCop personally, so this is only an impression, however I'm a strict hater of blacklists (blocklists?), and that's how SpamCop is being described.
I personally opt for SpamAssassin Milter, although any method of plugging into SA would suit me, simply because it's so highly customizable, open source, and I don't have to worry about a list going down or suddenly blocking everyone, which has NEVER happened recently (would have linked to the appropriate
Now am I that far off? Are there redeeming qualities about SpamCop that I'm overlooking that make this blocklist a good thing? Who controls who's blocked? Is it fair? Is there a human contact when things go awry?
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
My old Yahoo email account was getting ~50 emails a day. I don't know what UIUC uses, but once I started attending here, and switched to my UIUC email, I don't get any spam, at all. Props to anyone who can bring spam-free living to the masses better.
I wish I could write clever and witty sigs.
Right now, I believe SpamCop is legally just a private list that a small group of people use for their own personal email filtering purposes, and which they just happen to make available to the public. As such, they are all but untouchable in regards to any legal claims or actions. Should the list's purpose change, their untouchability may also change.
From Ironport's Webpage:
IronPort's Virtual Gateway technology allows a single IronPort to deliver separate campaigns on unique IP addresses. This technology ensures that if one campaign has a problem with less than perfect spam filters at receiving ISPs, it won't impact other campaigns on separate Virtual Gateways. Each IronPort A60 supports up to 256 unique outbound IP addresses.
Doesn't this sound a but like a spamming appliance? Basically it's saying that if one of your IPs gets blacklisted for spamming, that's ok because it will use a different one automatically.
SpamCop publishes a list, but whether it is used for scoring or blocking is completely up to the person receiving the list. For example, you state that you like SpamAssassin - one of the filters that is used by SA to score spam is the SpamCop blacklist. Also keep in mind that publishing this list is only one of the benefits that SpamCop provides. I use the reporting service to report spam (and incidentally, it's these reports that go into the creation of the blacklist.)
Funnily enough, SpamCop recently incorporated SpamAssassin for the pop/webmail service that they provide.
As for getting on and off, there is a deputy you can e-mail (a live human being), in addition to the standard set of webforms etc. SpamCop these days is a very benign service (for the most part). The fact that SpamCop is under almost constant attack by spammers trying to DDOS them, trying to overload their systems with fake accounts, etc. tells me that spammers consider SpamCop to be a major threat.
Is it just me or everytime I see something like the parent post on /. I immediately think "Astroturf" and ignore the hell out of it?
;)
:wq!
Eh, mabbie i'm just too damned cynical for my own good. Glad to see i'm in good company, however
No offense to the parent poster. Just too many years to Microsoft and SCOisms.
Spamcop is a list, not a blocklist, a blacklist, whether you block or tag using this list is your choice, not Spamcops. I personally have Spamcop set in my procmail filter to tag messages from Spamcop listed IPs I'm not crazy about blocking emails using anyone's list.
Yes there are live people behind Spamcop, I've interacted with a deputy on a few occasions after either erroneous reporting or joe jobs against customers.
Spamcop is a very handy service and very low key when it comes to getting listed and removed from the list.
--- www.f-theocean.com
They have funded the continued development of Python with continuations, called Stackless, by hiring the original author part-time.
As for the taking over of Spamcop I do not really know, money is really good, corporate bozo's making strange decisions after they made something their own can be bad. But for as far the other posts go; no real problem there either.
a il'
As for Black/Block lists I do not really know why everyone makes such a fuss about the block lists.
I need to elaborate a bit so bear with me.
A block list is just a specially configured DNS that returns special addresses for servers that chipped in their bit for spam. (Nothing wrong with this)
A blocker is a piece of software on the receiving end that is configured by the local administrator to ignore any server that is listed in one of these Black/Block lists. (Something fishy here)
So why do all the Block/Blacklist servers get so much flaming, aim at the misguided administrators that configure their mail server to unscrupulously block mail from every 'might-be-spammer-because-it-send-one-offending-m
You already use SpamAssasin and for as far as I know you can put weight on every block/blacklist you use so set it up like 'presumed spammer' = 1 'known spammer' = 2 'confirmed relay' = 2 and let the rest of the mail tell its own story before the mail get discarded.
I see block/blacklists as a traffic light; does everybody stop for a red light? Even if the intersection is clear at 2am?
I hope the messages they send out to ISPs and mail server owners will still be brief, for our comfort...
The email service itself lets you decide which techniques and/or lists you wish to use to filter your mail: Spam Assassin scores, Blacklists (you can even use Spamcop's email service but not their own blacklist), or simply by country.
Ok... So Ironport has 2 main product lines. One for accepting inbound email for multi-site redundant messaging infrastuctures, the other for blasting out huge volumes of mail for marketing campaigns (ahem, SPAM).
I did some research on these guys awhile back mainly for their inbound smtp gateway stuff, for a multi-site forwarding mess I'm currently trying to straighten out.
Now about 3 months ago they announced that they were going to do a deal with brightmail for spam filtering on their inbound mail gateway line (and so did symantec for their mail filtering/av/anti-spam/app firewall appliance) and now they're investing/buying spamcop.
Am I the only one seeing these guys play both sides of the fence? I mean, they've got one division dedicated to optimizing the throughput of their hardware to deliver the maximum spam/sec, while the other group is activly working away setting up spam filtering and blacklisting mail (which quite a bit of probably originated from hardware they made!).
Is it just me or is this kind of odd?
why not?
I'm not holding my breath. This all reminds me of another service which would have been squat without the community supplying massive amounts of data for it initially and making it successful.
Yup, CDDB. Purchase it, privatize it, charge certain "strategic partners" for access to data, then eventually block out all free clients and make it totally commercial.
Did Gracenote originally promise to keep it free when they purchased cddb.org?
IronPort is reported as stating that the SpamCop blocklist data will remain freely available to the public.
We just redid our email services and started using Spamcop our first RBL use ever and I'm extremely happy that it's blocking 99% of the mass spammers that have hit us for so long. After seeing the logs I was amazed that we get so much. I'll hold of on donations to spamcop until I know my money will be going towards supporting a free RBL service.
Please notice (above) that I use my spamcop.net addy here at
It's the users that make SC what it is. If IronPort ever goes to the Dark Side, the users will defect and there will be no SC any more ! I trust also that they understand this and that this is a happy day for the SC folks.
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
here's some Webalyzer reports for a "herbal" spammer. Not sure why they would leave a stats directory open to the public but it's nothing earth-shattering anyway...just interesting.
Reports
I'm a very satisfied Spamcop customer and have been for about two years now (my e-mail address in this post's "headers" confirms this, depending on how it's obfuscated).
At any rate, the only disadvantage I see with Spamcop is its lack of an SMTP server -- you'd think that they could have some kind of authenticated-SMTP included in the package, but that's not the case. Instead, you're advised to "use your ISP's SMTP server". That advice works most of the time, but you do run into some ISPs with SMTP servers that auto-block mail not containing the ISP's domain -- and that's exactly what I'm running into.
So, as you might have guessed, I run my own SMTP sever (www.xmailserver.org) off my local box. However, that's not perfect, either. What if I'm connected from a hotel room with Internet access and their firewall blocks outgoing SMTP?
Though that hotel-situation is a theoretical one (I haven't run into it yet), it still concerns me. So, does anyone know of a company that just sells SMTP access? (And you needn't mention smtp.com since $50/year is more than I even pay for Spamcop itself.)
Or, if you're listening out there, Spamcop, I'd be willing to pay a bit extra for SMTP access :).
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
I'm a former direct-mailer (spammer). Yes, Hate me.
.dear lord, will this mean for an extended supscription one would get removed from spamcop?
We had 2 IronPort A60's that we would use to pound mail out like insane pixies who had too much sugar.
With SpamCop being owned by Ironport..
This obviously would mean the dependance on spamcop to be a serious regulatory company, would be an idiotic assumption.
Ironport Sells 2 series of devices The A and the C
the A60 is the flagship of the outgoing mail genre, and the C60 is the flagship for blocking the incoming mail.
In basic sense, they sell the ultimate spam machine, as well as the ultimate anti-spam machine.
They're basically Gun Runners, and fairly evil. They will sell you one product to send huge mail campaings, and another to avoid them, its a damn protection racket.
How is this legal in the us?
Welcome to the End
...I think they should have held out for someone like AOL. Picture this: Aol buys spamcop and integrates it into their network. They go, if you don't use our blacklist by middle of next year, you will no longer be able to send us e-mail. That gives a deadline to all of the jokers that are running open relays to get their software configured up or they will not be able to send mail to AOL or anyone else doing business with AOL. That could be a huge self-regulating spam blocker.
On a side note, I wonder what will happen to the donated mirror servers. If SpamCop gets funding, are they going to still keep using the freebie public mirror servers or are they going to build their own and start paying for colo space? If they are going to build their own and pay for colo space, that will eat in to that $1Mil pretty fast.
Why read the article when I can just make up a snap judgement?
Ironport makes a living selling hardware that is used for spamming. What other reason is there for a piece of hardware that can send a half a million pieces of mail per hour? Take a look at their products for yourself. Bye bye SpamCop. You've just been bought by the enemy.
I personally opt for SpamAssassin Milter
You do realize of course that two of the checks in SpamAssassin are for Spamcop and the Ironport Bonded Sender whitelist?
Now am I that far off? Are there redeeming qualities about SpamCop that I'm overlooking that make this blocklist a good thing? Who controls who's blocked? Is it fair? Is there a human contact when things go awry?
Spamcop blocks nothing. It simply tells you whether an IP address is on the list and provides you with a URL to use to make the final determination yourself. Spamcop itself does not recommend automatically blocking based on SC listing alone. Spamcop is quite trigger happy because it's largely automated (and unfortunately the DNSBL doesn't include things like volume statistics to help automate it -- I suspect that'd be a commercial value-add). If you want a more carefully researched blacklist, I recommend the spamhaus SBL.
The contact process is documented on spamcop's site. Humans do read and act on it. They're generally a lot more reasonable than, say, the folks on usenet you'll have to speak to if you wind up on SPEWS.
I'd be astroturfing if I told you the overall "safe" solution I recommend, so I'll leave it there.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
They provide great service. Very easy to set up and no fuss. They filter all of our mail. Very few false positives. It's cheap too. We route all of our mail to spamcop and they tag what they think is spam and send it back to us. It is easy on our side to move the tagged mail into a "Bulk mail" folder. They developed a very fair way to block spammers IP addresses based on compaints and blind email accounts. The scores "age", so if spam stops coming from a IP address, it is taken off the list. They also use SpamAssassin for content filtering. Between IP and content filtering, they get most of the spam. They are a small outfit and they have had several serious denial of service attacks targeted at them. They would not be attacked if they where not effective. I dont think that they charge enough given the value of the service they provide. If you have a spam problem, you could do a lot worse.
I stopped using Spamcop when they struck a deal to send data to Cyveillance. Is that going to end?
Hey, I don't know about you, but no price is too small for that great selection of penis enlargement offers they must have at their fingertips.
I got one the other day, with a subject line saying "upgrade your wang".
I snorted my coffee through my nose laughing at that one.
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
InfoWorld is reporting that SpamCop is about to be sold to IronPort Systems for an undisclosed amount of money...
why do these frickin' tech guys have to CamelBack EveryThing?
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
In a much darker period of my life, I found myself working for Virtumundo.com, a so-called legitimate, 'opt-in' (read: 'failure to opt-out') email marketing company. They were using IronPort boxes to SEND spam because the machines were dedicated and could handle the high load. In fact, Virtumundo even got IronPort to alter some of their software to improve performance...
Now, IronPort is buying SpamCop for use in it's anti-email products. This reminds me of the companies who make both police radar guns and radar detectors...
It's rather ironic that Ironport, which makes spam sending appliances, is now going to be behind the two most wildly inaccurate 'spam came from here' lists.
First, they started with their own 'senderbase.org' misfeature. Senderbase.org lists addresses in unassigned, reserved, and even multicast ranges as having sent dozens, hundreds or more spam messages. Apparently, they blindly pick up IP addresses forged by spammers in Received headers, and declare the forged IP as the spam origin.
Second, they'll now be supporting Spamcop. Spamcop relies upon ignorant reporters, and fails to guide them away from commonly understood errors. Thus there is much non-spam reported as spam to Spamcop. Worse, Spamcop obligingly lists the IPs that were misreported.
All in all, I think it's par for the course for spam sending appliance vendor Ironport to build on their highly inaccurate senderbase.org operation by supporting the only slightly less inaccurate Spamcop. Bravo!
Look at what happened when Hotmail, a service that provides free e-mail accounts, got bought. Microsoft turned it into a pay service and cut down what had been available to free customers. For example, free customers are more strictly limited in how much they can hold in their inboxes and how large of attachments they can send or receive. Others seem to agree that Microsoft ruined Hotmail.
Will I retire or break 10K?
sort of like a racoon winning the bid to protect your hen house
IronPort is not a friend of the average user, they are a friend of the spammer. They make high volume Mail Pumps! They couldn't find enough spammers to sell to, so they are going to the other side of the equation and trying to sell products to enterprises to protect them from IronPort's other products. Talk about making money both ways. This reminds me of back in the 80's when Brian Bosworth was playing for the Seattle Seahawks. You may remember his trademark haircut. There was a very strong backlash to the boistorous asshole. Lots of "I hate Brian" and "We love Brian" tee-shirts in the parking lot being hawked by very aggressive vendors on both sides of the issue. Who did they both work for ? Brian's marketing company!
"Companies must be judged by capability and not intentions, for intentions can change overnight."
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Personally, until I have confirmation from the source, I see nothing that warrants getting my knickers into a twist. As of this moment, the purchase plan is nothing but a rumor; kind of like the official release date for Duke Nukem Forever.
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
I thought meaningless acquisitions and corporate mergers died with the dot-com crash...
I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to call you on that! What exactly is the emoticon for baby Jesus weeping tears of blood?!!!
Yup. It's Ironport's new patented SpamCannon(tm), whose sole possible purpose is to allow the Ralskys and Marins of the world to evade IP-based anti-spam blacklists. Makes you wonder why they bought SpamCop, now, doesn't it?