IronPort Arms Both Sides In Spam War

Posted by timothy on Wednesday December 3, 2003 @08:48AM from the and-get-outta-the-way dept.

securitas writes "We all know about IronPort's recent acquisition of SpamCop. What may not be common knowledge is that IronPort's Senderbase has 'the reputation as the fastest way to send millions of junk e-mail messages' and is popular with spam factories. Founded by two former Microsoft executives - Hotmail's Scott Weiss and ListBot founder Scott Banister - IronPort claims its customers are not spammers but legitimate marketers. Critics say that this is a clear conflict of interest. Playing spam from both sides might be likened to a pharmaceutical company enabling the spread of a disease in order to sell the cure. SpamCop founder Julian Haight - who had to sell the company in order to remain solvent - is quoted as saying of IronPort's anti-spam measures: "I am not sure all its standards are tough enough." The story was originally reported by the New York Times' Saul Hansell. Abbreviated mirror at IHT."

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McAfee by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 08:51 · Score: 0, Flamebait

This is like when McAfee bought out the major underground virus-makers back in 1997 and pumped money in them to keep them going at a fast clip.

Oops. you weren't supposed to know about this one.