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Spamhaus Opening New Branch in China

Eggplant62 writes "ChinaTechNews.com is reporting that Steve Linford's Spamhaus.org will open operations with the help of Chinese government officials and ISP's in order to remove spammers operating servers on China's portion of the Internet. For years, China's unwitting ignorance of the spam issues they have with the rest of the world has been a major stumbling block in the fight to control spammers who operate from the netblocks of foreign nations. Seeing China take steps to help the world curb the scourge of junk email has me cheering all the way. Go Steve!"

222 comments

  1. Awsome by Tokerat · · Score: 3, Interesting


    I'm glad China realized just how much money they're going to save their economy which they have been viciously trying to kickstart lately.

    Go China!

    --
    CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
    1. Re:Awsome by CougarCat · · Score: 0

      I suspect the Chinese government is only interested in blocking incoming spam, not outgoing.

    2. Re:Awsome by Tokerat · · Score: 1


      Well then they are blinded by pride and hatred, for outgoing spam clogs more of their resources than incomming does.

      --
      CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
    3. Re:Awsome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >viciously trying to kickstart lately

      "Kickstart"? Which planet are you from? The Chinese economy the past years has been rocketing - fears are it's overheating, with an annual growthrate near 15%. They are "viciously" trying to Cool it Down.

  2. Remove country code blocks? by Spruce+Moose · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe now people can start removing country code blocks. It's kind of sad having to block off countries due to spam and it would be nice to be able to turn this off.

    1. Re:Remove country code blocks? by tangent3 · · Score: 1

      Especially when it often makes good sense to work with other companies in these countries. Especially when looking for good cheap suppliers.

  3. Whack-a-mole by Hungry+Admin · · Score: 5, Funny

    welcome to level 50 of whack-a-mole!

    --
    Be who you are and say what you feel, because the people who mind don't matter, and the people who matter don't mind.
    1. Re:Whack-a-mole by tepples · · Score: 1

      I've beaten level 260 of Whac-an-Arrow. Does that count?

  4. Stop it at the source... by nev4 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's the penalty for spamming in China, getting runover by a tank?

    1. Re:Stop it at the source... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think that's the penalty for trying to prevent it...

      Seriously though, this is just one more reason to block their, um, block...

    2. Re:Stop it at the source... by MavEtJu · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They get exiled to jails operated by US contractors.

      --
      bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
  5. Why is this a Chinese issue - by thewldisntenuff · · Score: 3, Insightful

    atall? When a good percentage (can't find the stat when I need it, of course :) ) of the spam comes out of the United States, why the hell does Spamhaus look to the Chinese for help...We ought to start hunting down those the homegrown idiots like Scott Richter before we solicit help internationally....

    1. Re:Why is this a Chinese issue - by Secrity · · Score: 2, Informative

      I assume that by homegrown you are speaking of the US as "Snotty Scotty" is a Yank. Steve Linford, who is helping US authorities to track spammers, is a Brit. International help is needed because the Internet is international. One other group that needs to provide MUCH more help right now is the North American broadband providers. I believe that all of the spam that the notorious American (and some other English speaking nationalities) spam is sent either through non-US mail servers or through infected broadband connected home computers. The American spammers have gotten so notorious that they are unable to get connectivity from American providers. A quote from Steve Linford, March, 2003: "Alan Ralsky, Carl Henderson, Bill Waggoner, etc., are the bottom of the barrel of human society, they'll never be able to run a legitimate Internet-based business anywhere in the US again. We keep their history and will bust them with it for the rest of their working careers. By moving offshore they confirmed their intentions and burnt their futures. So they have to keep on the move and will need to find an alternative to China very soon...".

    2. Re:Why is this a Chinese issue - by LinuxHam · · Score: 1

      Not sure if you've ever been to Times Square, but imagine if you will a loudspeaker in times square that rebroadcasts (very very loudly) whatever it picks up via its wireless microphone receiver. Now there are about 4 people somewhere in a 10 block radius of that loudspeaker and they are using the loudspeaker to make everone's life miserable. By your account, they should leave the loudspeaker alone, but instead search every single apartment and office within a 10 block radius of that loudspeaker looking for the 3 or 4 individuals with the wireless mics that are transmitting to that speaker. The rest of us here just want the damn loudspeaker smashed to bits. Locate loudspeakers, smash to bits, repeat as needed.

      Again, if you've never been to Times Square or midtown Manhattan, you just can't grasp the magnitude of the metaphor.

      --
      Intelligent Life on Earth
  6. Spamhaus Opening New Branch in China by Richard_L_James · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great title.... makes Spamhaus sound like a fast food chain !

    1. Re:Spamhaus Opening New Branch in China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But in Communist China, a new branch opens you.

    2. Re:Spamhaus Opening New Branch in China by WebMasterP · · Score: 1

      You mean it's not? Damn! I was totally looking forward to a delicious SPAM BURGER on my next trip to China.

    3. Re:Spamhaus Opening New Branch in China by Richard_L_James · · Score: 3, Funny

      hmmm maybe your right. Imagine the spam burger offers... *Go large* for an extra...

    4. Re:Spamhaus Opening New Branch in China by benna · · Score: 1

      It sounds more like a bank to me.

      --
      "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
    5. Re:Spamhaus Opening New Branch in China by Hello+this+is+Linus · · Score: 0

      Sounds more like a ski shop, SkiHaus. http://www.skihaus.com/

      --
      Hello, this is Linus Torvalds, and I pronounce Linux as Linux!
    6. Re:Spamhaus Opening New Branch in China by multipartmixed · · Score: 1

      Would you like to upsize that penis for only twenty-nine cents?

      --

      Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
  7. Ha! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...unwitting ignorance of the spam issues they have with the rest of the world... Yeah right. They're well aware when people complain, when a victim does a whois and it contains no usefull data. Their responce? Call the preson who compains a harraser. They don't care about netiquete, just making money. If only I knew all the China, North Korea, and South Korea IP addresses, so I could block 'em all, I would.

    1. Re:Ha! by tangent3 · · Score: 1

      Err. yeah. And who will I complain to when I start emailing prospective suppliers I find on http://www.globalsources.com/ and find out that none of their replies are coming back to me?

  8. Re:Awesome by Spyffe · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I must say, though, that if I were a member of an organization that informs law enforcement, I would be hesitant to work with the government on the mainland.

    Spamhaus.org in the US can assume that spammers will be assessed for fines; the punishments may be more serious in China, whose legal system is much less transparent than that of the United States (although the US is working on theirs).

    I would be very careful to point spammers out to law enforcement; I would hate to have on my conscience that some guy with a family to feed is sitting in jail just for spamming because I cooperated with his government in prosecuting him.

    --
    Sigmentation fault - core dumped
  9. Go China? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    A country that has massacred dissenters and viciously oppressed their people while routinely practicing human rights violations? Uhhh, yeah, "Go China"...

    1. Re:Go China? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Ohhhh once again...I wish I had mod points. It may sound like a troll, but it's a fact WAYYY too often overlooked.

    2. Re:Go China? by onya · · Score: 4, Funny

      you're just sore that china is better at oppression than the usa.

      keep trying, i'm sure you'll get there one day!

    3. Re:Go China? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could they not have the decency to do it on foreign soil like a civilised country?

    4. Re:Go China? by Anonymous+Coed · · Score: 1

      Yet. They would vaporise Taipei if they thought they could get away with it.

  10. Eh? by gordgekko · · Score: 4, Interesting
    For years, China's unwitting ignorance of the spam issues they have with the rest of the world has been a major stumbling block in the fight to control spammers who operate from the netblocks of foreign nations.

    Unwitting...ha ha...good one. Nothing happens in China, especially in the high tech sector, without the government knowing about it.

    --
    You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
    1. Re:Eh? by subtillus · · Score: 1

      I'm going to second that motion.

      In other somewhat unrelated news, I can get DSL where I'm going to be living in China for about 12$ US a month.

  11. Re:Why is this a Chinese issue by blowdart · · Score: 5, Informative
    A lot of the spamvertised web sites (including Richter's) are hosted on Chinese ISPs (71% according to a survey from Commtouch. (The same survey shows that 60.5% of spam is sent from US addresses)

    The ISPs are unresponsive to emails, some don't have abuse@ addresses and of course there's the language barrier. So, hopefully, a spamhaus setup in China will get the chinese ISPs to remove the spamvertised sites quickly.

    The effectiveness of this idea, of course, remains to be seen. I can see the temptation of taking hard currency when you're happily ignoring complaints about the "Make big penis" web sites hosted in your IP space.

    Now if only Russia would do something about the paypal, ebay and bank phishing spammers they host, then I might consider lifting some country blocks.

  12. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would be very careful to point spammers out to law enforcement
    Wow, that reads like hypocrisy given the rest of the post. What I meant was that I would be very hesitant to do so.

  13. Why not? by www.sorehands.com · · Score: 1, Funny
    The threat of prosecution in China may deter spammers from continuing spamming.


    Being executed and the family being billed for the bullet will certainly prevent them from spamming again.

    1. Re:Why not? by styrotech · · Score: 2, Funny

      Being executed and the family being billed for the bullet will certainly prevent them from spamming again.

      I have grave reservations about putting spammers in front of a firing squad.

      They need something far more agonising and drawn out. Eaten alive by rats maybe?

    2. Re:Why not? by trudyscousin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I noted that the parent has been moderated as 'Funny.' Given the kind of justice that is often meted out in China, is it that far from the truth?

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
    3. Re:Why not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spammers should be pulled out and shot. If their family won't pay for the bullet, I know an office full that would.

    4. Re:Why not? by cujo_1111 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I really don't understand this murderous hatred of spammers. What they do is incredibly annoying and costs businesses a lot of money, but have they ever killed anyone?

      When spam ends up killing someone, then I may be able to understand putting a spammer in front of a firing squad.

      At present I think a better punishment for spammers would be to have an implant inserted into their inner that constantly plays Greensleeves or Macarena constantly. Or insert an implant behind their eyes so they regularly see visions of enlarged penises...

      --
      If I point out that you are incorrect, making me a foe does not make you any more correct.
    5. Re:Why not? by styrotech · · Score: 1

      At present I think a better punishment for spammers would be to have an implant inserted into their inner that constantly plays Greensleeves or Macarena constantly.

      Now you're going too far!! That's just outright sadism.

    6. Re:Why not? by 1u3hr · · Score: 1
      Given the kind of justice that is often meted out in China, is it that far from the truth?

      Pretty far. If you do something against the Chinese government, expect labour camps, torture, your children thrown out of school, your mother evicted from her house, etc. If you commit an economic crime that only affects foreigners, expect a slap on the wrist, then pay a bribe, continue spamming.

    7. Re:Why not? by phorm · · Score: 1

      Actually, the family being billed for the bullet part is about right. According to some of my friends from China, if you are executed for various crimes, your family will be sent a bill for the bullet used.

    8. Re:Why not? by grainofsand · · Score: 4, Informative

      The policy of sending the family a bill for the execution bullet was ended in the late 80s.

      However, the death sentence can be imposed in cases of "economic crime" that involve amounts greater than RMB 100,000 (about US$12,000).

      --
      A dream is good. A plan is better.
    9. Re:Why not? by eric76 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I really don't understand this murderous hatred of spammers. What they do is incredibly annoying and costs businesses a lot of money, but have they ever killed anyone?

      Rarely, but yes.

      One of the sometime purposes of 419 spam is to lure you into Nigeria or some other country where you may be kidnapped and held for ransom. There has been instances of people being murdered.

    10. Re:Why not? by Tackhead · · Score: 1
      > > Being executed and the family being billed for the bullet will certainly prevent them from spamming again.
      >
      > I have grave reservations about putting spammers in front of a firing squad.
      > They need something far more agonising and drawn out. Eaten alive by rats maybe?

      Lawyer from the ASPCA on line 1 for you. He wants to know why you have a hate-on for rats.

    11. Re:Why not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "...an implant behind their eyes so they regularly see visions of enlarged penises..."

      My ex-girlfriend had one of those...

      That wasn't my ex-wife, was it?

  14. steve did it for his car by spir0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    now those spammers that he pisses off will be on the other side of the world and won't be able to smash his car up..

    --
    The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
  15. Do all bad things come to an end? by suso · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Things are looking up. Time for another tech boom.

  16. Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    China has multitude of sickening human rights abuses and a totalitarian government, but hey, nobody cares about female newborn children being murdered because obviously recieving a few spam e-mails about enlarging your penises is a far more heinous crime than brutal suppression and censorship.
    I'm sure I'll see you all at the China Olympics in 2008, where /. will be on hand to gladly report increased Linux use by the Chinese secret police in their torture holes.

    1. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by benna · · Score: 1

      Parent sounds harsh but definatly has a good point. Let's get out priorities straight.

      --
      "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
    2. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Tuvai · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree, harsh words, but the arguement is sound. Surely a democratic government and more integration into the wider world would do far more to stop all forms of computer related annoyance and illegality in China than an single branch of Spamhaus.

    3. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Kiryat+Malachi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, because there certainly isn't any spam sent from the US.

      Wait. Yes there is.

      --

      ---
      Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
      (I read with sigs off.)
    4. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by gorbachev · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Would you rather people work on minor issues only after the more serious ones have been resolved?

      Good luck to you on that...you can start by solving the AIDS epidemic. I trust you'll report on your progress in timely basis.

      Proletariat of the world, unite to kill anonymous morons

      --
      In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
    5. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Tuvai · · Score: 1

      Would you rather people work on minor issues only after the more serious ones have been resolved? I would when solving the major issues allows the minor ones to be tackled far more effectively.

    6. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China (along with Mother Russia) is the emerging powerhouse of spam, piracy, and general internet fuckery. This is also true for South America (Brazillian hackers being the ones behind the attacks on Wil Wheaton and Microsoft lately). Starting to see a pattern developing here?
      But regardless of this I wish Spamhaus the best of luck, just watch out for those tanks and concrete shoes guys ;)

    7. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck that, I'll care when dead prisoners start clogging my inbox and female newborn babies start offering \/1.c0d3n through shady web sites.

    8. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by KanSer · · Score: 1

      A truly effective rebuttal. Torture -- Spam. The connection is oooh sooo clear. And since Americans do it it must be bad!

      --
      • MOD PARENT UP by Anonymous Coward Wednesday April 20, @4:20
    9. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And since Americans do it it must be bad!

      You know, this would've worked much better if you didn't use spam / torture as an example...

    10. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Nestafo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      But hey, United States got the biggest attention in Amnesty International Report 2004, and US produces more than half of the world's spam. You are correct, people seem to focus on irrelevant things. But compared to US, China is not the biggest to blame after all.

    11. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by BK425 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Now that's just silly. China doesn't kill all their female newborns any more. Now they are raised in massive state orphanages so they can be sold off to US families for hard currency.
      (The sarcasm here is intended for China.gov, not the US adopters who take these babies, sometimes with open leg sores from rocking back and forth in their wooden cribs, to a better life.)

    12. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Proves once again what lucrative business selling babies is. Why won't anyone believe me when I tell them what business opportunities lie in that?

    13. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Kiryat+Malachi · · Score: 1

      No, actually, democracy is fairly effective in preventing torture.

      But the parent I replied to tried to state that it's effective in stopping spam, and it isn't. There are MANY good reasons to get China to become an open, democratic society with a strong tradition of free speech, but fighting spam is not one of them.

      You really ought to read what people say, instead of just getting touchy about it, especially when you're getting touchy at someone who's proudly American.

      --

      ---
      Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
      (I read with sigs off.)
    14. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Maestro4k · · Score: 1
      • China has multitude of sickening human rights abuses and a totalitarian government, but hey, nobody cares about female newborn children being murdered because obviously recieving a few spam e-mails about enlarging your penises is a far more heinous crime than brutal suppression and censorship.
      Seeing as the article is about Spamhaus opening a new branch in China, this is a totally specious argument. Spamhaus isn't an organization formed to deal with human rights abuses, but with spam. That they're working with China to help stem the flow of it is great. It'll not only be nice to see less spam flowing through unsecured Chinese servers, it gives us another channel for meaningful dialogue with the Chinese, which might help lead to ending many of those human rights abuses.

      In any case your argument is sound only when out of context, in context of the article it's flamebait. I suspect you know this (otherwise why'd you bother posting anonymously.)

    15. Re:Nice to see they have their priorities in order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      specious argument - an argument that appears good at first view but is really fallacious.

      Her thesis is not fallacious. It's a valid point.

      out of context - If words are used out of context, only a small separate part of what was originally said or written is reported, which causes their meaning to be unclear or not understood.

      Clearly, her words are presented in their entirety and are not "out of context". Perhaps you mean "off topic". Thus the appropriate moderation would be "off topic" rather than "flamebait".

      What's sad, is that up until now you probably thought you added value to this discussion. What would be sadder is if you still don't realize you did not.

  17. See, that's it. They won't slap these guy's hands by BattyMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They'll simply disappear.

    No seriously. If the Chinese government ever half understands how trashed its email reputation is, it will _never_ let these people touch a keyoard again. There are other careers, several of them, in the PRC.

    But really the problem is international spammers exploiting unsecured relays, and I would suppose that with official cooperation Mr. Linford oughta be able to track those down pretty easily.

    Whether the Chinese netspace can ever be redeemed is another matter. I for one know no one in China and see no reason to quit filtering anything from or relayed through there. Maybe in about five years, if we hear about the situation being "amazingly well cleaned up", perhaps.

    --
    Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
  18. Prime German Quisine... by the+HIM · · Score: 1

    With local Chinese flair! Welcome to Spamhaus, vould you like der penis enlargement?

  19. here ya go by Brightest+Light · · Score: 4, Informative
    1. Re:here ya go by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice, Comblast blacklist, fantasic. Fucking comcast users account for over 50% of the open relay traffic hitting my emails servers.

      Good to see that theyre doing fuck all about it.
      swbell, comcast, rr, attbi and bbtec - the WORST us spam friendly isps

  20. China trying to cool economy by baomike · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actualy china has been trying to slow economic expansion. The current rate is believed to be unsustainable. It has been leading to "excesses".
    There is official worry that the bubble may burst,
    therefore they are attempting a "soft landing".

    1. Re:China trying to cool economy by subtillus · · Score: 1

      According to the People's Daily (read: propaganda double plus) they're succeeding so far: count on post Mao China to be economically sensible.

  21. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think they're trying to prosecute spammers - which would be difficult anyway, since, IINM, most of them are in the US - they just relays in China.

    Their mission is to close the relays so that they cannot be used by the (US or elsewhere) spammers.

  22. Re:come on! by ErrorBase · · Score: 1

    You sound like a Mozilla User, Remove the Adblock feature, and do not forget to shutdown the pupup filter. You will get all the spam you'll ever need.

  23. A Short Lesson in Chinese Politics by dananderson · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This all sounds very familiar. I had Chinese roomates back when I was a grad student. To improve their English, they got the People's Daily. It was written in broken English (at least then), but was very interesting reading between the lines. I would read about a major government initiative, say, to control water pollution. Great! Well, nothing would happen and a few months latter, I would read about another water pollution program (for example). This would repeat for other "good things."

    So, the lesson is, the Chinese government leadership has very good intentions. However, they don't follow through or don't have the power to overcome inertia, bureaucracy, and corruption.

    1. Re:A Short Lesson in Chinese Politics by onya · · Score: 1

      sounds like governments everywhere. they're always annoucing that they're going to half the deficit or cure cancer or some shit. a few years down the track when it hasn't happened, they make excuses, announce some other scheme and get on with the business of making themselves and thier buddies rich.

    2. Re:A Short Lesson in Chinese Politics by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 1

      I wonder. Are the intentions good, or is the intention simply to look like they have good intentions? My understanding of Chinese cultrure is that face is often more important than reality."Yes, we've got a program to clean the water for the villagers" * refills glass from bottle of imported mineral water * It's hard to take well meaning politicians seriously when they are so far removed from the problems and the people (This goes for everywhere, not just China).

      --
      Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
    3. Re:A Short Lesson in Chinese Politics by Grail · · Score: 0

      The lesson I get from what you described is, the people are supposed to think what Big Brother Mao tells them to. This week we'll hear about how spam has been limited to 100 messages/week. Next week, we'll hear about how everyone is excited about the spam level being limited to 400 messages/week, the lowest ever since the war with Oceania started.

    4. Re:A Short Lesson in Chinese Politics by kahei · · Score: 1


      I would read about a major government initiative, say, to control water pollution. Great! Well, nothing would happen and a few months latter, I would read about another water pollution program (for example). This would repeat for other "good things."

      So, the lesson is, the Chinese government leadership has very good intentions


      Man, if I were a greedy, materialistic, totalitarian regime, I would give my RIGHT ARM for citizens like you!

      --
      Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
    5. Re:A Short Lesson in Chinese Politics by subtillus · · Score: 0

      1) Mao died in 1976, while he's still a cultural hero of sorts to some, he stifled the economy and education while in power. The government since has switched the focus from ideological communism to RAMPAGING CAPITALISM.

      The Communist party recently allowed PRIVATE land ownership.

      The Communist party also recently allowed businessmen to join.

      So, say what you will about the Chinese state being BigBrother, but, things are getting much better. They're just trying to make sure things don't fall apart on their way to the top. Give it 30 years and things will be very different, (in soviet america...)

      Go China!

    6. Re:A Short Lesson in Chinese Politics by subtillus · · Score: 1

      While I'm not sure which regime in china he's talking about, not the present one definitely...

      But, during the revolution, post revolution and the redbook days Mao DID mean well. It's obvious from his writings from before he came to any sort of power, and his thoughts are fairly consistent.

    7. Re:A Short Lesson in Chinese Politics by Dusabre · · Score: 0

      So, the lesson is, the Chinese government leadership has very good intentions.

      You are very naive.

      Nobody has perfected lying and propaganda better than communists.

      In the case of communist governments, don't believe what they say they'll do and be sceptical about what they say they've done. Also check the people who confirm that the governments has done what it says its done.

  24. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by GrpA · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If that's all there was to it, there would be no problem. Unfortunately, when you miss a critical e-mail because you accidently delete it, or it gets deleted as a false positive, then you start to realise the real cost of spam to the recipient typically costs them more than virus and worm damage combined.

    Then consider that if you have children, Pornographics spammers expose them to the worst of hardcore porn with utter comtempt for their safety and wellbeing.

    Finally, remember that Spammers are *all* Sociopaths, protected for the first time by the size of the community, allowing them to abuse anyone without any fear of retribution.

    For what it's worth, I personally see spammers as a bigger and more present problem than hackers ever were.

    GrpA

    --
    Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
  25. yeah, I'll send in my resume tomorrow by SuperBanana · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Seeing China take steps to help the world curb the scourge of junk email has me cheering all the way.

    Now if we can only get them to do something about that pesky human rights problem, we'll be all set. You know, disappearing people, executing them for things like speaking against the government, no free press...

    It'll be especially handy, since then if they need anyone from outside China to work in the office, people might actually want to, instead of being terrified of getting arrested for uttering the wrong word or failing to bribe the wrong guy, or telling someone about what's really going on in the world...and getting locked away in some (literal) shithole for the rest of eternity, with a little T&E(torture and execution) thrown in for fun.

    Seriously, people- you go to China, there are lots of ways you can end up never being seen/heard from again. I wouldn't go there if you paid me to- I'd go to Iraq before I went to China.

    1. Re:yeah, I'll send in my resume tomorrow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wouldn't it be nice to see those spammer just dissapear?

      And yes I have been China several times, but I would never consider going to Iraq at the moment.

    2. Re:yeah, I'll send in my resume tomorrow by gorbachev · · Score: 1

      Funny you should mention that...people've been talking about muslims dissappearing somewhere in the coast of Cuba for a few years. I wonder what's causing it?

      --
      In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
    3. Re:yeah, I'll send in my resume tomorrow by hughperkins · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm in China now, reading and submitting to slashdot. As random info, I tried accessing the following sites, from a cybercafe here, with the following results:

      reuters.com/news.html -> ok
      www.iht.com -> ok
      www.cnn.com -> ok
      www.lemonde.fr -> ok

      and you can see that slashdot is working

    4. Re:yeah, I'll send in my resume tomorrow by subtillus · · Score: 2, Insightful


      I am an atheist, in China, I will be normal, in the U.S. I would be considered a freak and ostracised. I am a scientist by training, in the U.S., stem cell research is heavily limited by bible thumping politicians, in China, no such problem.

      In China, a white guy speaking chinese is impressive. In the U.S. a white guy speaking anything but english is scary, espescially if he speaks french too!

      In China... I could go on for hours but I have class in ten minutes (chinese class at that).

    5. Re:yeah, I'll send in my resume tomorrow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I went to China as a Western person. Their biggest interest was my wallet (I was a student at that time, it's not like I was able to bribe people). They didn't care much for any radical views I might have. Beyond that they just thought I "hip."

      You're comparing China to what again? Please don't tell me the US: "the land of freedom." Because the US is far from that with the Patriot Act and what other government movements are going on. As a matter of fact, the US is one of the last governments of the West that plays by the rules. And don't get me wrong, I do love the US.

      Your view is extremly biased, SuperBanana. As a matter of fact you would freak me out as much as some Police-state zealot would.

      I'd go to China any day. It'd make a great vacation. I would even consider working there for a while. I'm all for diversity and coming to accept your neighbors. Sharing some of your good values and learning some of their good vlaues. China won't come out of it's Human Rights situation if we condem them for the problem. Going to war with a country to "liberate" them is not always the right answer.

    6. Re:yeah, I'll send in my resume tomorrow by BK425 · · Score: 1

      That's funny, I hang out with a number of atheists. That's when I'm not running with my Wiccan friend who teaches gun classes or my Pagan friend who's into Yoga. Of course we're all freaks but you say that as if it's a -bad- thing and certainly none of us are "ostracized".
      -Boyd (the token christian)
      PS I'm also a white French speaker, haven't been tarred and feathered yet...

    7. Re:yeah, I'll send in my resume tomorrow by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1
      I am an atheist, in China, I will be normal, in the U.S. I would be considered a freak and ostracised.

      Most would call me an athiest. I'd be more likeley to call myself a bright/. I live in the US. In Texas, deep in the bible belt. And your claims about how you would be considered a freak and ostracised are simply not true.

      In other words, I don't have any qualms about your being an athiest - but it pisses me off that you will outright lie about the US just because you don't like Americans. And you are lying, no question about that.

  26. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by grasshoppa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think you are missing a few pieces here.

    On an individual basis, who cares? It's just crap to delete.

    Now, say you have an organization of a 1000, 90% of whom are your average users ( you want my email address? SURE THING ). 900 users getting spam in their mailbox? Where you would have needed a small 300mhz, 64mb system, now you need a dual 1ghz 1gig system and an admin to keep a constant eye on it.

    And I'm not even going into the bandwidth and the spyware/trojan aspect of it.

    End result: The side effects are spam are immense, financially.

    But this isn't just a white collar crime. Take, for example, the pr0n spam. How many of those chicks do you suppose are 'legal'? Or how about prescription drugs, made available online? Or how about scams that rip off stupid old people ( I won a lottery that I never entered in a country I've never even heard of much less been to, and all I have to do to claim my reward is send them obscene amounts of money? Sign. Me. Up. ) of their retirements?

    Spam and those that spam should be strung up by their ball sacks ( or tits. Let it never be said that I haven't discriminated against every single sensitive group ) and stones should be sold, 5c per pound.

    --
    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  27. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would hate to have on my conscience that some guy with a family to feed is sitting in jail just for spamming...

    That's a curious way to look at it. Most people's consciouses would probably bother them if they did not report a spammer to any entity that might have the power to stop them using any means available.

    A single instance of the criminal act of spamming can affect a million people. The only other comparable criminal single act in terms of the sheer numbers of people affected would be if an individual detonated a nuclear device over a populated area or released a well-designed virus into the wild. These are the most severe of crimes by virtue of the total collective damage that a single instance of the act causes.

  28. The real problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For years, USA's unwitting ignorance of the spam issues they have with the rest of the world has been a major stumbling block in the fight to control spammers who operate from countries where spamming for some reason is legal.

    1. Re:The real problem by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1
      For years, USA's unwitting ignorance of the spam issues they have with the rest of the world has been a major stumbling block in the fight to control spammers who operate from countries where spamming for some reason is legal.

      So says the AC. But I notice that he didn't mention any of these countries which made spam illegal years ago? Why would that be? Perhaps because there are none? I call bullshit.

  29. yes by SHEENmaster · · Score: 1

    In red china, taxes will pay for the bullet so the widow doesn't have to.

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
  30. How do you know the justice in China? by www.sorehands.com · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    When I was in China, I didn't see the police beating people on every street corner or strip seaching everyone in a bank.

    What about the secret courts, and all the other violations under the patriot act.


    We in the USA do not have the corner on justice or human rights.

    1. Re:How do you know the justice in China? by jrockway · · Score: 1

      We have a system, however, that allows these laws to be challenged and struk down. The Patriot Act isn't going to be around much longer; there are too many people against it now. Someone will be tried under it (see the recent ACLU cases...), and the judge will say something like "wtf? this is a law!?!! how did THAT happen?" and it will go away.

      That doesn't happen in China. The United States has a pretty good criminal justice system (I say criminal justice system because the civil justice system is complete crap.

      A:"Hi there. I'm suing you."
      B:"For what?"
      A:"I don't like you, and I have some spare cash"
      B:*runs out of money*
      A:*doesn't win lawsuit, but annoying person is no longer around, case ends*)

      --
      My other car is first.
    2. Re:How do you know the justice in China? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      like it or not GWB was elected. by the laws and strucutre that our country has.

      you dont like it, go and get the law changed to be a popular vote, but it isnt, so get the fuck over it.

      homeland security isnt new by the way, someone just decided to do something

  31. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by gorbachev · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Do please try to keep up with the issues surrounding spam and spammers.

    They cause billions of dollars worth of damage every year. They are routinely violating numerous laws, yet they still operate freely.

    The most recent development has been mass scale use of zombie networks for spamming and DDOS attacks against spam fighters.

    It's also widely known that some of the viruses out there have been created solely to establish zombie networks for use by spammers.

    Proletariat of the world, unite to kill spammers. The more painful, the better.

    --
    In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
  32. Re:Awesome by EvanED · · Score: 1

    However, the damage to each person who you send a spam to is 3 seconds and maybe a penny of bandwidth. The damage to each person from detonating a nuclear device: their life, home, all possessions, ...

  33. It's 2004 People by wan-fu · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Hello? Reality to the readers of Slashdot. Every time China is mentioned in any /. article, China's human rights issues are immediately pushed to the forefront. I have serious beef with that in the form of two main issues:
    1. The "get priorities straight" or "let's see China get some basic human rights" posts are more cliche and more often seen than hot grits and Natalie Portman (then again, I read at +1).

    2. It's 2004 people, China is no longer the China of ten, even five years ago. China is one of the most rapidly developing nations and with each major technological push in the country, the people receive even more degrees of freedom. When I was in China just two years ago, I could talk to just about anyone about how they felt about the government. No discomfort, no "oh crap, is he secret police?" (I am Chinese, US Citizen, with Beijing Mandarin accent so it's hard to tell that I'm not from there)

    Though Internet access is "spotty," e.g. no access to Google cache, etc. They have the Internet and most of it at that. Sure, things operate differently there and it's easier to find yourself in a jail cell. But there is no longer the mentality of "he critized the government, flog him."

    Now, in the more interior/central parts of China, changes are slower than on the coast because of the slower pace of technological change there. But I can't emphasize this enough: China has made some serious progress from ten and even five years ago. Every year, China makes big strides. People have more freedom in their speech, press, and some places even have elections.

    Also, since it's obvious that most people here aren't that knowledgeable about China (nor am I, but at least I know enough that it's not how everyone is describing it), another important thing to note is the changing of leadership. The old guard is slowly receding with China's new president (though obviously Jiang is still a big figure lurking in the shadows) and fresh blood in the Congress. New ideas and new leadership will only make the country better

    Lastly, though we always hear about human rights violations every year, I feel (and this is just my opinion, no real facts here) that a lot of it is blown out of proportion. Not to say that it's okay, but that perhaps people should try to be less biased about it. I think that because people hear about these incidents in China, they automatically think, "Damn, that China, they'll never fix their human rights problems. They are always beating people and torturing them, etc." But now, put that in perspective of what happens in many other developed countries (US, Britain, etc.) Many people are unlawfully detained, or excessive force is used upon them, or they are mistakenly incarcerated. I think that if you took all the news stories about those types of events happening in the US, and said it happened in China, people would go nuts calling out for China to give their citizens "basic human rights."

    1. Re:It's 2004 People by TheOtherKiwi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Mod me as off topic but the actual difference between China and the other nations mentioned is that other nations prohibit such violations - when they occur, it is against the will of the democratically elected government and hopefully the people that elected them. Unlike China where it is "legal" to do these things.

      To get back on-topic, I think the article is a good example of how China is moving (slowly) towards more modern society even if the pace is not as fast as many would like - there are other factors to take into account...nobody wants a revolution in one of the world biggest economies...this is not good for anyone of us.

      --

      -- Sig meltdown immine...
    2. Re:It's 2004 People by Col+Bat+Guano · · Score: 1
      The old guard is slowly receding with China's new president (though obviously Jiang is still a big figure lurking in the shadows) and fresh blood in the Congress.

      That must be a receeding heir line...

    3. Re:It's 2004 People by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Finally.

      I have family that works and lives in China (Chinese), and have lived in the Soviet Union, so I know what I am talking about when it comes to communist regimes. I see many slashdotters are completely uninformed: how about you people go visit there for once before you bring it down!

      Here are some realities about China that slashdotters constatly get wrong (in no particular order; this is not a comlete listing):
      1. Most of the internet is available (even slashdot)
      2. People are getting much richer in the coastal cities. While 80% of the population are peasants whose fortunes have not changed much, 20% (population of U.S.) of the populaion has gone from shithole to middle class in about 20 years. Every year, many more people (.5-1% of the population) are added to the middle class. Also, even though Chinese earn on average very little, that money goes much farther there. Please check the PPP-based income stats for the country. With the economy growing at 9% on average every year, more people are getting richer fast. China is basically pulling the industrial revolution in a short span of time (think Japanese modernization on _large_ scale). Go to wikipedia and check what the second largest economy is with PPP adjustment.
      3. The communists are changing fast. They are just not that hardcore: more like Gorbachev then DPRK. The law of the land is this: stay off the taboo subjects (Taiwan,Tibet,Falun Gong, and a handful of others) and we will leave you alone. Of course, these subjects may be joked about in private conversations. Slashdotters seem to think there is this omnipresent gestapo there. Not so: don't rabble rouse, and you can even open your own business (provided you have $$$ and connections). Remember kids, Taiwan and RoKorea were not all that democratic until relatively recently, so when China's average income reaches a certain threshold, people will start demanding more rights if they want them. Also consider Singapore: they are mostly Chinese, and while very rich, have many restrictions. It may be that China may end up the same way due to its culture, and that is not necessarily bad! A poster who said they would rather go to Iraq than China is out of his mind. It is not the DPRK, slashdotters get real.
      4. Not everyone is a slave labour drone. Sure, workers that go from the farm to the factory have sucky lives, but they suck less. If you read about the industrial revolution in Europe/US, you will find that there was child labor and horrible conditions too. All these slashdot posts about "well, its Red China, they are the Borg and do what the government tells them" is way out of proportion. There are labour camps, but percentagewise a very small portion of the population is there (and did you think that some of the criminals there are real criminals and not just dissidents?).

      There are many more, but I will stop here. Of course many things in China suck! BUT, they are changing _very_ fast (like the parent said, China 2004 != China 1998 even), and many of the things slashdotters just blow way out of proportion. Get real before you post.

  34. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by Richard_L_James · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Like most things there is a balance in terms of how advertising is carried out. Proper commericial email advertising is definately here to stay. The problem is there are many so called "email advertisers" out to make a quick buck by any means possible.

    In my book there is a huge difference between putting a advertising flyer through someones letter box vs attaching a flyer to a rock and smashing it through a Window. A proper advertising company will use the letter box. IMHO people like Steve Linford help ensure a balance.

    when someone DDoS's me I just laugh at them for thinking im hurt by not being able to use the internet for a couple of hours and walk away from my computer

    Your lucky to be able to do that. However many people rely on an Internet connection for business. For them walking away means no money is being generated and important customer customer communications are not being received. Like you most if not all of these decent people wish they could just walk away like you can but they are unable to do so.

  35. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by SharpFang · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ever got an SMS to your phone from the restricted "emergency" account and been fumbling for 2 hours to find an internet cafe in a strange city to troubleshoot the unknown problem while it just appeared that the spammer launched a "dictionary attack" against your server? Sometimes it's "mark, delete" and 500 spams gone in matter of 10 seconds. Sometimes it's 2 hours of stress, fear, wasting a lot of money and nerves because of one spam.

    Thanks to lovely spammers I can't leave my box for a month unattended. With 5 emails my mailbox would fill in half a year. With 100 spams daily this drops to weeks.

    --
    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  36. Re:Why is this a Chinese issue by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

    WE can do something about the phishing sites, just need to set up a few machines to go through and put random and invalid data into the fields on the phisher sites, spam the spammers untill they cannot respond efficiently to actual successfully captured info. Have a long list of names and surnames, randomly combined to produce names, then mathematically produced CC#'s that are valid but with bogus billing info (imaginary streets and cities) which the CC companies will throw out but the spammers wouldn't know is bogus untill they tried to use it and it failed.

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  37. F***n Gong by tepples · · Score: 1

    They have the Internet and most of it at that.

    Can Chinese citizens visit pages about The Gong Show, or is it considered too close to the banned F***n Gong organization?

    1. Re:F***n Gong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course I realize you're either trolling or trying desperately to be funny, but for the record, I live in China and can access that site just fine. And the grandparent is pretty much on the money about everything he said.

  38. Taiwan! by MaineCoon · · Score: 1

    It'll just be moved to Taiwan.

    I'm sure then China will try to use that as leverage as to why they should get Taiwan back.

    --
    Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
  39. Do the math by BattyMan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The guy who got sentenced to jail today for spamming had sent something like 800 million pieces of spam. If we figure that each of those took someone one second to delete, then he's effectively _stolen_ those 800 million seconds from those "recipients".

    This amounts to:

    8e8 / 86,400 seconds/day = 9259.25 days.

    9259.25 days / 365.25 days/year = 25.35 Years

    OK so maybe a minor spammer's life isn't _completely_ forfeit. The last time I did this (with numbers from another spammer) it worked out to 112 years.

    _How_ much spam was Richter responsible for, again?

    --
    Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
  40. US is the worst offender. In one word: ComCast by NKJensen · · Score: 1

    Comcast the steady number one with around 5 times more spam than number 2 on the list of the spam recorded by SpamCop.

    They simply don't handle spamming zombie computers efficiently.

    No .cn domain event gets into the top-10 list:

    1 lacking dns 149112 2.411%
    2 comcast.net 77528 1.254%
    3 attbi.com 13561 0.219%
    4 mindspring.com 8718 0.141%
    5 charter.com 6043 0.098%
    6 rr.com 5751 0.093%
    7 revolution-media.com 3395 0.055%
    8 zonnet.nl 3230 0.052%
    9 ewetel.net 2911 0.047%
    10 nameservices.net

    Being European, I block everything from ComCast until they start dealing with the issue and not just talking about it (several /. articles about that)

    --
    -- From Denmark
    1. Re:US is the worst offender. In one word: ComCast by Dr.Hair · · Score: 1

      No "lacking dns" is the worst offender, or more accurately "lacking reverse dns". And the .cn domain is horrible about providing reverse dns for users. I don't think I've gotten an IP to resolve yet and I do get valid traffic from .cn on my alter ego's blog. .hk (and the .com's hosted in Hong Kong) aren't so bad. PCCW is listed in the article as a bad source of spam and PCCW's ISP, netvigator is good about reverse DNS.

      Though a lot of US ISPs are completely delinquent when it comes to providing reverse DNS.

  41. On Human Rights. by Nailer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I live in Australia. We're apparently a US ally (more like a lackey), but even the most conservative (therefore pro-US) newspapers here reported the Iraqi torture as just that. The Australian, the nationwise conservative newspapaer in a country of 18 million that's one of your biggest allies, used the word torture to describe naked prisoners being badly beaten or having chemical light fluid poured through their anuses.

    Which is why I find it amusing that on Nightly Business Report (a US financial news and current program that's on just before our own news) you're using the words 'suspected mistreatment' to describe something that's documented and not denied by anyone (the only issue seems to be whether the Geneva convention was officially supposed to be ignored).

    So yeah, look in your own backyard before judging China. Since Sep 11, you're like a wounded pitbull attacking everything and anyone without thought. What on Earth does Iraq have to do with terrorism anyway?

    (And yes, Australia has a pretty poor HR record in a lot of ways too - but I'm not denying that)...

    1. Re:On Human Rights. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      So yeah, look in your own backyard before judging China. Since Sep 11, you're like a wounded pitbull attacking everything and anyone without thought. What on Earth does Iraq have to do with terrorism anyway?


      Terrorism feeds off fundamental Islamic regimes that use propaganda to lie to the people about how America/the West is the "great Satan" or whatever. Those regimes are breeding grounds for terror; democracies like Israel (and Iraq in a few years) represent huge threats to their base.

      What the lefties fail to realize is that these radical Muslims hate them too. Just the other day, Madonna canceled a concert in Israel because there were threats on her children's lives by terrorsts. It must have been a shock to her, given that she sent an email out to her fan listserv saying that terrorism was not the number one safety issue for her or her children. Sympathize with them all you want, but they still hate you and want you dead. Their interpretations of the Koran--as evidenced by their public statements--say that they loathe democracy and freedom; their ultimate goal is to install their regimes and way of life in every country. They really believe that is what Allah wants them to do.

      All in all, the better question is, "Do the terrorists see Iraq as part of the war on terrorism?" Given the resistance by radicals loyal to Saddam, and the al-Qaeda fighters, and the al-Qaeda supporters that killed Nick Berg, it's pretty obvious that the enemy at least views it as a war on them. Prior to war, people argued that al-Qaeda and Hussein would NEVER ally (we now know that al-Qaeda operatives were training in Iraq with Saddam's blessing) because Hussein was too secularist. Every person with a brain said that was total BS; the post-war fighting should clue you in that al-Qaeda and Iraq were very much in bed together.

    2. Re:On Human Rights. by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      You're saying that bombing innocent civillians in Iraq was the right thing to do because they might become a threat in the future. In that case, is it ok if I kill you because you might try to attack me sometime in the future (I've got no evidence, but hey, it's possible you might attack, maybe).

    3. Re:On Human Rights. by Nailer · · Score: 1

      Nobody except you, right or left, still bothers to hint Iraq and Al Qaeda were in bed together, much less say it.

      Was Iraq has to do with terrorism is this: by attacking Iraq, and ignoring the Geneva convention the world over, the US pushed a lot of moderate Islamists against them, creating more terrorists. Which is fair enough, most Americans would probably feel the same way if another country treated them that way.

    4. Re:On Human Rights. by Toasty981 · · Score: 1

      You need to read more if you believe the first sentence.

      As for the second, that's like saying bombing the raillines to Auschwitz would have made the Nazis more vindictive.

    5. Re:On Human Rights. by Jahf · · Score: 1

      Ok, if you look back on my posts (actually some may be way lost to the 25 that you can look up) you'll see that I'm a big critic of my government (U.S.) when it comes to things like PATRIOT act and Bush's presidency in general.

      And I don't take issue with your summary of various attitudes toward China or the world in general since 9/11.

      But I do have 2 problems:

      1) You are criticizing how "we" have been judging China, making it sound like "we" all are acting that way, when you've just done a similar type of lumping. The U.S. does NOT act as a 100% majority anymore than any other country does, and many of us are actively working to change things.

      2) I take issue with the quote "(more like a lackey)" ... I've been to AUS and you already hit the nail on the head talking about your news. I was amazed when I was watching television over there ... I swear I saw more U.S. programming (including commercials) than I have in any other country outside of the U.S. (except perhaps Canada). If AUS is a "lackey" it is AUS's fault. The reason I was so surprised by this is because I felt like 20 years ago AUS had a very definite separate identity (I could be wrong) but now things appear to have reversed. When I spoke to people in Sydney and Melbourne about wishing I had time to go tour the backcountry and see things that can only be seen in AUS I got looks of surprise (and in one case pure shock) that I would want to see anything outside of the (Americanized) city.

      A bully (which I feel Bush has been since 9/11) can't act without the passive support of those who surround them. AUS (and GB) may not be as guilty as the U.S. overall, but all share the guilt.

      --
      It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
    6. Re:On Human Rights. by BK425 · · Score: 1

      "you're using the words 'suspected mistreatment'"
      WHAT?
      This entire thing was released through official US Dept of Defense sources. Those pictures (all of them) came -from- US and it's the department of defense who originally (back in January) called it torture and "a violation of the Geneva convention". So, if you're going to go off topic at least be accurate and don't paint all of the people of the US as represented by what some blow dry says on "Nightly Business Report". TIA

    7. Re:On Human Rights. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get Bent, BK.

      The comment that you're replying to reflects, accurately, how north american media (news) and the US military commonly describe the situation.

      You might be one (accurately) informed individual within the USoA, but you're *NOT* representative of the US news media or a 'typical' voter that would represent your current elected leaders.

      If you've got one individual accurately describing the torture as torture, we've got 999 journos and military spinners describing it as "suspected abuse".

      Get a grip, eh? Even up here in Canada, after we declined to join you nuts in your TV-War, our media is still describing torture at abu-grave (sp?) as "abuse".

      You're all upset about one thing; yourself.

      Drop that, slow down and realize that the USoA fscked up big time, this time. This in no bay of pigs. The international community told y'all to get a grip and you chose to ignore us.

      Not only did your elected twits lie to your populace about why it was going there, you twits that support your elected neo-conservative cabal don't have the nuts to admit you fscked up.

      Whinge to the UN now. Watch the rest of us met out appropriate retribution to your populace and your leaders.

    8. Re:On Human Rights. by Nailer · · Score: 1

      Then quote me someone - certainly the administration avoids mentioining it anymore - ot makes them look dumb.

      Er, then why didn't you do anything in Saudi Arabia?
      The iraq thing is pretty simple. Your leaders wanted to invade Iraq, Sept 11 happened, the people got duped into thinking invading Iraq would help. A giant power vacuuum was created which the US, being a foreign entitity, can't hope to fill. So of course fundamentalist Islam is flourishing.

    9. Re:On Human Rights. by Nailer · · Score: 1

      I think we pretty much agree. Lackey doesn't necessarily mean we were forced to become the USs bitch. I actually agree with you - us (or our government as you'd put it) decided we'd become that.

      The government most Americans elected are dangerous fuckwits.

      The government most Australians elected are dangerous fuckwits.

    10. Re:On Human Rights. by Nailer · · Score: 1

      The original pictures were leaked. I haven't heard the DoD use the term torture ever, just journalists.

  42. mod em redundant by Arngautr · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    If these weren't already at -1, I'd mod 'em redundant, come on guys.

  43. China's Human Rights Abuses by puke76 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    [Queue comments about China's human rights record from flag wavers]

    I believe Amnesty International just gave the US a damning report on human rights abuses. Detention without charge or trial

    It is hardly suprising that those in the US (land of the free etc) point the finger at China's human rights record, whilst ignoring human rights abuses in their own back yard (Guantanamo Bay, Iraqi prisoners, etc). I'd say our hypocracy (do as we say, but not as we do) and our naive view of the world ("good" vs "evil") has given us a lot of rope with which to hang ourselves.

    Flag waving is not a sport

    1. Re:China's Human Rights Abuses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can honestly say, this is the work of Bush's regime, it's his fault, please don't blame the American public for this, infact we are trying to get this looked at. It is, but the process is slow.

  44. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by Matt2k · · Score: 1

    I'm forced to use e-mail the same way I'm forced to answer the phone and conform to society. I need to make money. I do business over the Internet. I must sort e-mail and occasionally I delete a legitimate message by mistake.

    I want my nine year old nephew to experience the same joy of world wide communication that I experienced ten years ago, when I first discovered the Internet, but he is unable. His e-mail address is flooded with pictures of people fucking horses.

    There's enough ills in this world to keep us all busy. Not everyone can be working on cancer research and tracking rapists.

  45. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by Dimensio · · Score: 1

    Spammers are just people looking to make money. Yes their tactics are slimey

    You misspelled "criminal".

    How is banning SPAM any different than banning VoIP (see earlier article).

    Well, there is the whole "consent" issue.

    How is it different from criticizing politicians?

    Again, that "consent" issue. That is, spam is forcing unwanted advertising onto someone, who then has to pay to receive the unsolicited advertising. I don't see how that compares at all to VoIP or criticizing a politician.

    Sounds like you're just ranting and whining because you don't actually have a real argument against outlawing the theft of service and trespass to chattel that is email spamming.

  46. Not unless it is reduced by a fator of 1000 by batray · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I block all mail from CN, HK. & KR becasue I get nothing but SPAM from them. I do mail for about 40 users and I block more than 5000 spam messages from CN each day. Until that number drops by at least a factor of 1000 I will leave my country block for CN online. Trojan proxies and CN now are my number 1 & 2 sources of spam.

  47. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by grainofsand · · Score: 1

    simple solution: www.gmail.com

    --
    A dream is good. A plan is better.
  48. Mindless idiots taking things far to seriously. by ScouseMouse · · Score: 0

    This is most definately *NOT* funny, and only someone from a country that still supports the Death penalty for anything could find this funny.

    I hate spam (And Theftware erm.. scamware... erm scumware.. erm.. gator too) with a passion, Threatening actual physical harm to spammers as opposed to 5-10 in the clink is just not on.

    I dont know what Chinas record on this sort of things is (From a quick googling it seems pretty bad), but I doubt they wouldnt execute such people, probably just fine them (Its not after all political or serious crime related).

    Its a shocking indightment of modern society that people are willing to joke about such things in trivial manner.

    Hell, i'm, starting to sound like my grandad. Time to stop now.

    1. Re:Mindless idiots taking things far to seriously. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I dont know what Chinas record on this sort of things is (From a quick googling it seems pretty bad), but I doubt they wouldnt execute such people, probably just fine them (Its not after all political or serious crime related).

      It depends. On how your mail server is set up. Here is what you get if you connect to lll.lgl.lu's mail server:

      > telnet lll.lgl.lu 25
      Trying 158.64.72.228...
      Connected to lll.lgl.lu.
      Escape character is '^]'.
      220-EFGIC: ESMTP U.S. Congress Condemns China's Oppression of Falun Gong on
      220-U.S. Soil and in China
      220-
      220-House Concurrent Resolution 304 calls on China's agents in
      220-the United States to halt all operations being carried out against
      220-practitioners of Falun Gong on United States' soil, as well as the brutal
      220-persecution of millions inside China.
      220-
      220-LONDON (EFGIC) - Last week, the US Congress introduced a concurrent
      220-resolution calling on the Chinese government to end its brutal
      220-persecution of Falun Gong in China and stop all activities against Falun
      220-Gong practitioners inside the United States.
      220-House Concurrent Resolution 304 (full text), introduced by Congresswoman
      220-Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, references China's own constitution and
      220-international human rights accords in calling for China to uphold
      220-freedom of belief, assembly, and speech for the millions of Falun Gong
      220-practitioners in Mainland China.
      220-Resolution 304 also specifically mentioned section 401(a)(1)(B) of the
      220-International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6401(a)(1)(B)):
      220-"Whereas the Constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of
      220-religion, the right to assemble, and the right to speak freely, and the
      220-people of the United States strongly value protecting the ability of all
      220-people to live without fear and in accordance with their personal
      220-beliefs..."
      220-Harassment, libel, and imprisonment have been widespread in
      220-Jiang Zemin's four-year campaign to eradicate Falun Gong. Torture and
      220-abuse in custody have led to thousands of wrongful deaths.
      220
      If reading such tripe is not a political crime, I wonder what is...

  49. Still USA spammers by some1somewhere · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Keep in mind it is USA spammers/scammers taking advantage and hacking/cracking other people's/countries computers.

    The ROOT of the problem still exists, and that is USA spammers.

    So if China makes some headway to reduce the number of trojaned computers, open relays, etc. thats good but the core spammers still need to be caught and dealt with.

    --
    **FREE** Track and view your phone's via CellID and/or WIFI and/or GPS :- http://tinyurl.com/la6fhd
    1. Re:Still USA spammers by dustmite · · Score: 1

      No matter how much headway China makes in patching open relays etc., the spam problem will never go away, or even begin to slow down unless the USA bothers to do something about the source of the problem. The spammers will keep finding ways to spam as long as it is profitable and they can get away with it. But American egos seem to prevent us from even allowing themselves to acknowledge that we are the cause of the problem. So don't expect much headway on this when the country causing the problem thinks it isn't.

  50. CNN website in China not the "real" CNN by some1somewhere · · Score: 1

    Note that some websites show "special" versions for people in different countries. So the CNN website you are viewing may not be the same CNN website a US citizen would view.

    --
    **FREE** Track and view your phone's via CellID and/or WIFI and/or GPS :- http://tinyurl.com/la6fhd
  51. China? US! by hherb · · Score: 4, Informative

    I welcome any effort to reduce Spam anywhere.
    However, I just went through the hassle of analyzing what has been caught inmy spam trap today:
    243 spam messages total
    of which
    4 (four!) apparently came from China.
    7 came from Russia,
    1 came from Germany
    19 I haven't been able to work out yet
    the rest comes from ... USA. That's 212 out of 243, or almost a whopping 90%

    Guys, the problem is with the good old US, at least for the spam I receive. The legislation there is not biting at all.

    Anybody got a link regarding larger and long term spam statistics re country of origin?

    1. Re:China? US! by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1

      You should take those same 243 spams and look at the websites that they spamvertise. You'll find most of them in China. The problem with China isn't the spam that comes from there - that's a fairly small amount. The problem with China is hosting spamvertised websites and not giving a shit about it.

    2. Re:China? US! by hherb · · Score: 1

      This is not the case. When I said I analyzed where the spam came from, it took the location of the company behind the spam into account (the company advertising).

      Most spam was regarding mortgages, penile enlargement, pornography and dodgy degrees - all from the US.

      From Canada I got spam re cheaper generic medications

      The little spam I got from China was mostly re pirated software, and some fake "Viagra".

    3. Re:China? US! by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1

      US companies - but you'll still find that they are using web servers in China to hide who they are and keep the website going. I'll not deny that the US is the instigator of most spam - but doesn't change the situation. A US spammer often sets up a site with "bulletproof hosting" in China or Taiwan, sends the spam via another method (trojaned machines, open relays, stolen accounts, or just toss-away accounts.) The money still comes back to the US, since it's a a-hole in the US that is running things. The US certainly deserves a lot of attention - we are a large part of the problem. But the servers in China that ignore spam complaints (which most US servers won't do, though there are exceptions) are still part of the problem.

  52. Wait a minute... by hobbsbutcher · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    But when the Chinese government "cracked down" on Google, that was bad.

    So when it's for our convenience, it's OK?

    --
    Jonathan B.
    1. Re:Wait a minute... by Steve+B · · Score: 2, Insightful
      But when the Chinese government "cracked down" on Google, that was bad.
      So when it's for our convenience, it's OK?

      This is the most inane statement I've read on /. for months, and that's saying something.

      Of course it's bad when the government "cracks down" on peaceful people going about their legitimate business and good when the government "cracks down" on thieves and con artists. The latter is one of the reason we put up with having a government in the first place; the former is evil power-mongering.

      --
      /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
  53. spam is down by chrisranjana.com · · Score: 1

    Yes lets get rid of spam , chinese or otherwise !

    --
    Chris ,
    Php Programmers.
  54. china, human rights, and the united states by strider_starslayer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    oh no; here comes the magic phrase: I know I'm going to get modded into oblivion, but...

    Somehow whenever china gets mentioned- it's horrid stompings on the concept of human rights comes up. That's good, china has some very serious problems with human rights that need to be addressed, even today. However, I find a lot of this stomping to be 'blind stomping' people insult china's human rights violations, without understanding them; or trying to assault the root of the problem. Also statments like 'china shoulden't be doing this until they can get there human rights issues sorted out' come up a lot.

    Maby this IS how there going to fix there human rights issues- by making forward strides to making a forward thinking comunity china will raise it's peoples standard of living, and slowly emerge as a global 'contender' in world politics and technology (there allready recognised as a power; but often a pool of cheap labour power, rather then a technological one), so long as china's people are (in the world view) nothing more then cheap labour, how will they ever be able to comprihend there own people as cheap 'disposable' labour; and that sort of thinking results in- you guessed it, human rights violations- if there lives are cheap; there is no incentive not to end them when they commit 'crimes' (the state identifies crimes, which may or may not align with morality or even sanity- see the DMCA for examples)

    The next problem I have with people poo-pooing on china's human rights violations blissfully ignores human rights violations from other countries (torture of Iraqie prisoners, horrid treatment of 'illegal combattants' in guantolomo bay from the US for instance, in my own country, we were still 'indoctrinating native children into society' which is a polite way of saying kidnapping native americans and forcing them to attend schools far from home while there sexually assaulted by the priests and nuns until 1971)

    My point is; none of our countries are 'perfect' when it comes to human rights- and I think that china should be given some slack- for all the ill they are doing, they seem to be improving by leaps and bounds- improvement still needs to be done, the human rights issues still need to be addressed; but simply saying 'china is a hole where humans have no rights and should be ignored' is wrong- china as a country is trying to better itself, it diserves recognition for that; great change either requires time, or revolution: I think everyone can agree revolution is not in the bests interests of anyone with regard to china.

    --
    -Millions of Monkeys, Millions of typewriters, 6 hours of sorting through faeces encrusted pages to find: This post
  55. Re:Not unless it is reduced by a fator of 1000 by 1u3hr · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I block all mail from CN, HK. & KR becasue I get nothing but SPAM from them.

    I live in Hong Kong. For every legitimate email I get from the US I get hundreds of spams. All in English, selling drugs, mortgages, software, porn, cable decoders etc. The US creates the spam, and routes it through whatever servers it can find. And you know who thw spammers are (ROKSO) and do nothing to even slow them down. But you block my emails becuae I live in the same country as the server the American spammers are using.

  56. Hypocrisis in USA ?! by Maljin+Jolt · · Score: 1

    Even if it comes through Poland or China, it is american spam.

    Yes, all spam I receive here (eu) is for american drugs, american health care, american sex sites, american housing, american education and american career.

    I don't need any of this, really.

    Anyway, those americans are clever. First they sent dozens of millions backdoored windows to China, then blame the chinese for spam.

    --
    There you are, staring at me again.
    1. Re:Hypocrisis in USA ?! by aussie_a · · Score: 0

      Even if it comes through Poland or China, it is american spam.

      A way to combat spam is to go to the host that the spam is stored on. That happens to be in China at the moment. Sure it might be Americans doing it, but it's on China's servers.

    2. Re:Hypocrisis in USA ?! by Maljin+Jolt · · Score: 0

      A way to combat spam is to go to the host that the spam is stored on. That happens to be in China at the moment.

      I am sorry but I do not believe that. A way to go is to combat no spammers, but spam contractors. That means to go after the guys operating sites whose urls are mentioned in the spam anchors. Or phone numbers. Or fax numbers.

      The only tool needed to find by urls them is a DNS resolution. Guess, which country these sites are mostly sitting in... BTW, all phone and faxes are american.

      --
      There you are, staring at me again.
  57. What he didn't say by aussie_a · · Score: 0

    When I was in China, I didn't see the police beating people on every street corner

    The police were beating people on every second street corner

    :P

  58. blocking port 80? by Barbarian · · Score: 1

    When you refer to hosted sites and country blocks, it sounds like you're blocking http traffic. Is this the case?

    1. Re:blocking port 80? by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

      Because each email contains the source IP address of the host used, the country block will simply block every email coming from within that country.

      Also, inside the spam or crappy emails you get, commonly there is a link to the actual product, at the very least an image.

      This image and the backroom site have to be hosted somewhere.

      As others have pointed out, Chinese hosts are not very helpful in removing this crap, or even responding to abuse/spam warnings, and the spammers have taken to using these hosts as a base of operations.

      that is what the blocks are for :)

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
  59. Re:Awesome by instanto · · Score: 1

    I would report him.

    I'd watch his execution.

    I'd celebrate when my inbox reads (16) and the Junk Mail *ONLY* reads (250) for one day.

    One down - a few thousands to go.

    --
    // instant - "I for one welcome our new Decaff Coffee-Flavoured-Coffee Overlords"
  60. fair point but... by not_a_product_id · · Score: 1

    While I do agree with the spirit of the parent/grandparent post, it's not like somebody said "OK. Do you want Spamhaus or human right?" and Spamhaus got picked instead.

    --

    ---
    We spoke for about a half an hour. I don't recall a thing we said. - Colorblind James Experience

  61. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by Steve+B · · Score: 2, Informative
    How is banning SPAM any different than banning VoIP

    Spam is theft of services. VoIP is not theft of services. Duh. I'd rather have a Free internet

    Freedom requires a justice system for punishing those who are found (after due process) to have violated the freedoms of others (e.g. by using their property without permission).

    --
    /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
  62. US commercial news by zogger · · Score: 1

    I'm in the US and been a serious news junky since the late 50's. I would 100% agree with you. I can't think of a single top commercial media outlet in broadcast that isn't heavily censored. And the deal is, for most people, they never fully realise it, because unless they actually go LOOK and seek out alternative news and foreign news, they will never see anything else.

    And the censorship is quite slick, and subtle, sometimes they just completely ignore issues. Other times they do a "report" but leave out enough details to totally give an erroneous impression. Other times they outright lie. The completely dismal coverage of *true* 9-11 data is a prime example. By now if we had true uncensored news, we would have had a regime change internally, it's that bad here, IMO.

    And it's because, at the tippy top, ALL the major outlets are run and controlled by the same elitists who run and control the government, the so called "elite" who use the media to affect politics and business, and always in their favor. "News" simply for "news" sake doesn't exist, near as I can tell. News as proganda and as advertising does though, heavily. And I'll include PBS as well, in most instances. And when it;'s mixed with a public school system that is over 1/2 sheer brainwashing, yep, you get a controlled, dumbed down population. It's designed that way, they spend whatever it takes to make sure it's run that way, so they get the results they want.

    The nightly business report is heavily shilled towards wall street skimmers, to keep people locked into that mindset and congame. You won't see them ever actually mentioning that perhaps it's just not a good idea to buy a "stock" at all today, for example. I'd take that outlet with a grain of salt as well. Think of it as 30 minutes of Ronco style infotainment commercial and it makes more sense.

  63. rimshot! by zogger · · Score: 0

    --that's a good one man, got a chuckle from it!

  64. You have some screwed up priorities! by fmaxwell · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I would hate to have on my conscience that some guy with a family to feed is sitting in jail just for spamming because I cooperated with his government in prosecuting him.

    Your argument is wrong on so many counts, so I'll just pick on a few of them here.

    1. Company X makes widgets.
    2. Company X gets a lot of spam.
    3. Company X's employees and IT staff spend a lot of time dealing with the spam.
    4. Company X has to hire additional IT staff to combat the spam software.
    5. Company X is forced to raise the price on widgets to pay for the man-hours and additional staff that deals with spam.
    6. Sales of Company X's widgets decline due to the higher prices.
    7. Company X goes into the red, losing money.
    8. Company X lays off workers.
    9. Those workers, who, unlike the spammer, did nothing wrong, have families to feed, too.
    Consumers are paying more for most consumer goods (especially Internet access) because almost all companies are dealing with spam problems. That means lower sales of luxury items, layoffs at stores, etc. Republicans are quick to claim that taxes drive down consumer and business spending, but what do they think that the "spam tax" is doing to the economy?

    Would you hesitate to turn a mugger in to the police because his family might go hungry? Would you not turn in some guy who robbed a liquor store because he is doing it to feed his family? Just because the U.S. government won't jail spammers doesn't mean that the spammers should not go to jail. If China jails them, then I will applaud China.
    1. Re:You have some screwed up priorities! by Thomas+Shaddack · · Score: 1
      Alternative:
      3. Company switches to Mozilla (or any other client with antispam plugin) and teaches the employees to teach the built-in Bayesian engine by labeling spam as spam - even a monkey can learn a single click. The lone admin considers it good but it could be better, and adds a second layer of protection on the mailserver, along the lines of SpamAssassin.
      4. Profit!

      Spam is a problem. But usually not *that* big problem, maybe with exception of some ISPs.

    2. Re:You have some screwed up priorities! by fmaxwell · · Score: 1

      3. Company switches to Mozilla (or any other client with antispam plugin) and teaches the employees to teach the built-in Bayesian engine by labeling spam as spam - even a monkey can learn a single click.

      Flaws:

      1. It costs money to deploy a new mail client. Try doing it for a company with tens of thousands of computers.
      2. It costs money to train people in how to use the new mail client. Yes, many administrative people, secretaries, facilities support personnel, etc. will need training and support.
      3. All advanced features of existing client, including calendar sharing, meeting scheduling, etc., disappear -- causing much disruption.
      4. The spam still arrives, taking bandwidth and storage.
      5. Employees can still sue the company for receiving sexually explicit spam.
      6. Employees still have to train the anti-spam feature. Some will do it wrong. Some will be confused by it.
      7. Some "good" mail will be lost.

      The lone admin considers it good but it could be better, and adds a second layer of protection on the mailserver, along the lines of SpamAssassin.

      Great idea if you are dealing with a six person office, but Spamassassin doesn't scale at all well for an enterprise type of environment.

      Spam is a problem. But usually not *that* big problem, maybe with exception of some ISPs.

      I work for an international corporation that employs over 120,000 people. Just about every one of those employees has a computer. They use Outlook and Exchange so that they can share calendars, schedule meetings, etc. You think it would not be a big problem to roll out a new client there? What happens when you deploy the new client and 5,000+ people complain that they can's sync their PDAs and cell phones with the new client? How do you deal with the many people who are using company laptops off-site when the roll-out takes place? What happens when someone's mail forms that they created for Outlook don't function with the new client? Who reconfigures the multiple firewalls to allow port 25 traffic to flow within the company (since Exchange doesn't use that port for its proprietary protocol)?

    3. Re:You have some screwed up priorities! by Thomas+Shaddack · · Score: 1
      1. It costs money to deploy a new mail client. Try doing it for a company with tens of thousands of computers.

      With that size, a spam specialist is probably required. However, so big company can absorb the cost easily.

      2. It costs money to train people in how to use the new mail client. Yes, many administrative people, secretaries, facilities support personnel, etc. will need training and support.

      Been there. Migrated over 120 people from Lookout Express to Mozilla. Wasn't as difficult as I feared. Never looked back.

      3. All advanced features of existing client, including calendar sharing, meeting scheduling, etc., disappear -- causing much disruption.

      If they are used. There are alternative solutions for these too, often as an intranet app with a web interface. (Not everything has to be tightly integrated with a mail client.)

      4. The spam still arrives, taking bandwidth and storage.

      The worst offenders produce the most spam. They can be blacklisted on the server. "550 - mail rejected, you are on a spam blacklist. If it is by mistake, call XXXX to rectify the situation."

      5. Employees can still sue the company for receiving sexually explicit spam.

      Let them sign that they won't, during hiring. Or move to a country with less lawyers per capita.

      6. Employees still have to train the anti-spam feature. Some will do it wrong. Some will be confused by it.

      It can be done, providing the users aren't complete assholes. If they aren't able to understand a simple algorithm, it's likely they aren't able to understand other aspects of their work as well and the question is why they still are there.

      7. Some "good" mail will be lost.

      That's a valid point. Cursory check of the spam folder once per day solves that, together with a good whitelist. The risk depends on the model of the company, how many mail communication is by "stable" routes and how many tend to be new. A selective challenge-response can do the job here: request response, but only if the mail looks like spam, otherwise let it through.

      Great idea if you are dealing with a six person office, but Spamassassin doesn't scale at all well for an enterprise type of environment.

      Not every enterprise has to be that big. The ones where the cost of additional staff may be hurtful are the small ones. The big ones benefit from their size enough anyway. (And there are other kinds of mail filters, less resource-hungry than a perl monster.)

      I work for an international corporation that employs over 120,000 people. Just about every one of those employees has a computer.

      My one is about 500 times smaller. Otherwise pretty similar.

      What happens when you deploy the new client and 5,000+ people complain that they can's sync their PDAs and cell phones with the new client?

      You should've count with that possibility earlier and request usage of PDAs/phones with standard-compliant OBEX protocol. The standards are here for a reason.

      What happens when someone's mail forms that they created for Outlook don't function with the new client?

      Ummm... they will get redesigned to be W3C-compliant and the original author will be questioned why he didn't adhere to standards? Again, standards have a reason for their existence.

      Who reconfigures the multiple firewalls to allow port 25 traffic to flow within the company (since Exchange doesn't use that port for its proprietary protocol)?

      Who in their sane mind would use a proprietary protocol for a mission-critical application, if they don't want to become a vendor's puppet? Besides, Windows-based solutions are marketed as easy to maintain, so the reconfiguration should be an easy job.

    4. Re:You have some screwed up priorities! by fmaxwell · · Score: 1

      With that size, a spam specialist is probably required. However, so big company can absorb the cost easily.

      They don't "absorb" any costs. They pass those costs on.

      If they are used. There are alternative solutions for these too, often as an intranet app with a web interface. (Not everything has to be tightly integrated with a mail client.)

      While I agree with the latter, it costs money to move people away from a solution with which they are all familiar and comfortable.

      The worst offenders produce the most spam. They can be blacklisted on the server. "550 - mail rejected, you are on a spam blacklist. If it is by mistake, call XXXX to rectify the situation."

      I own and run the domain anti-spam.org and can tell you that the spammers are jumping from one net to another, using zombie machines, etc. It's not that easy unless you block entire countries.

      Let them sign that they won't, during hiring. Or move to a country with less lawyers per capita.

      Why should someone have to put up with ads for penis enlargers, breast augmentation, 'hot, horny coeds', miracle diets, and 'barely legal teens' at the office? Moving to a country with fewer legal protections for workers is a common, and despicable, tactic.

      If they aren't able to understand a simple algorithm, it's likely they aren't able to understand other aspects of their work as well and the question is why they still are there.

      Please! The guy who changes flourescent lightbulbs and cleans up after functions doesn't have to understand "algorithms" to do his job -- but he probably does have e-mail so that he can get company-wide notices, requests for his services, etc. Don't be such a snob.

      Cursory check of the spam folder once per day solves that, together with a good whitelist.

      I don't know about you, but I have enough things to do at work that I don't want to have to read through suspect e-mail in order to avoid losing something.

      You should've count with that possibility earlier and request usage of PDAs/phones with standard-compliant OBEX protocol. The standards are here for a reason.

      So people should chastise coworkers and managers who don't have OBEX-compatible phones and PDAs? Yeah, that's a great way to win friends and influence people. Whether it's OBEX or not, most PDAs and phones sync better with Outlook than with anything else.

      Ummm... they will get redesigned to be W3C-compliant and the original author will be questioned why he didn't adhere to standards? Again, standards have a reason for their existence.

      You can't expect secretaries, marketing people, and HR personnel to learn W3C standards to design mail forms and stationary. Nor should they. You put a tool on their computer and they use it to do their jobs. If they use Outlook and it's easier to do using Outlook's proprietary formats and tools, then that's what they should use.

      Who in their sane mind would use a proprietary protocol for a mission-critical application, if they don't want to become a vendor's puppet?

      Most large corporations who analyze applications based on business needs rather than open standards advocacy. That's why so many businesses use Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino servers. They serve the needs of the corporation.

      Besides, Windows-based solutions are marketed as easy to maintain, so the reconfiguration should be an easy job.

      What the hell does Windows have to do with rack-mounted Cisco firewalls that exist all over the world?

      You need to back off with your anti-Microsoft rant and realize that "open standards" are often severely lacking. That's why we have the spam problem -- because SMTP has no authentication built into it and anyone can spoof anything.

    5. Re:You have some screwed up priorities! by Thomas+Shaddack · · Score: 1
      They don't "absorb" any costs. They pass those costs on.

      They can sacrifice a little bit of their profit. A single megacorp's TV ad or a billboard can pay for quite some time of a technician.

      While I agree with the latter, it costs money to move people away from a solution with which they are all familiar and comfortable.

      That's true. However, the principles of most software are the same and only user interface details differ.

      I own and run the domain anti-spam.org and can tell you that the spammers are jumping from one net to another, using zombie machines, etc. It's not that easy unless you block entire countries.

      True. You won't get a 100% solution here, but you can alleviate things a lot using just a few domains (a thousand and half or so) and reject the mail if they are in MAIL FROM or HELO. Another thing is to reject the mail when HELO string has your own IP address, which is often used trick of the spammers.

      Why should someone have to put up with ads for penis enlargers, breast augmentation, 'hot, horny coeds', miracle diets, and 'barely legal teens' at the office? Moving to a country with fewer legal protections for workers is a common, and despicable, tactic.

      I didn't say "do nothing". I intended to say "prevent them from suing you for whatever slips through the countermeasures".

      Please! The guy who changes flourescent lightbulbs and cleans up after functions doesn't have to understand "algorithms" to do his job -- but he probably does have e-mail so that he can get company-wide notices, requests for his services, etc. Don't be such a snob.

      Misunderstanding. Algorithms aren't only computer-related; they may mean the sequence of acts needed to exchange a lightbulb as well as clicking the mail away as spam.

      I don't know about you, but I have enough things to do at work that I don't want to have to read through suspect e-mail in order to avoid losing something.

      If you set up the filters well, the uncertainities won't take that much work.

      So people should chastise coworkers and managers who don't have OBEX-compatible phones and PDAs? Yeah, that's a great way to win friends and influence people. Whether it's OBEX or not, most PDAs and phones sync better with Outlook than with anything else.

      Protocol compatibility should be considered when the device is purchased. Otherwise one gets locked to a platform, which is something to be mourned sooner or later.

      You can't expect secretaries, marketing people, and HR personnel to learn W3C standards to design mail forms and stationary. Nor should they. You put a tool on their computer and they use it to do their jobs. If they use Outlook and it's easier to do using Outlook's proprietary formats and tools, then that's what they should use.

      So either give them such tools or hire somebody to write them. With sufficiently-large company it may be cheaper in effect than licencing them.

      Most large corporations who analyze applications based on business needs rather than open standards advocacy. That's why so many businesses use Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino servers. They serve the needs of the corporation.

      The needs may change. The market situation may change. If you thought about standards in the beginning, a vendor going bankrupt or abusive won't be that big problem.

      What the hell does Windows have to do with rack-mounted Cisco firewalls that exist all over the world?

      Sorry, my fault. It's late here and I got blinded by the Exchange thing.

      You need to back off with your anti-Microsoft rant and realize that "open standards" are often severely lacking. That's why we have the spam problem -- because SMTP has no authentication built into it and anyone can spoof anything.

      Again, that's true, to certain degree (without some rudimentary authentication every server would be an open relay). However, you can add extensions, if the other side supports them too

    6. Re:You have some screwed up priorities! by fmaxwell · · Score: 1

      They can sacrifice a little bit of their profit. A single megacorp's TV ad or a billboard can pay for quite some time of a technician.

      You're assuming that they are profitable. That TV ad or billboard might generate business, so paying for another person to fight spam AND cutting into advertising to do it is a double whammy.

      I didn't say "do nothing". I intended to say "prevent them from suing you for whatever slips through the countermeasures".

      Actually, what you said was "Let them sign that they won't [sue], during hiring." I think that we need some lawsuits against companies for this kind of thing. Then the large corporations who have purchased their own representatives in Congress will put some pressure on to do something meaningful in legislation and enforcement about the spam problem.

      The needs may change. The market situation may change. If you thought about standards in the beginning, a vendor going bankrupt or abusive won't be that big problem.

      In some cases, proprietary solutions provide features and functionality not present in open standards. I would avoid Microsoft Exchange (and Lotus Domino) like the plague, but many businesses, including the one for which I work, use it and find that the pluses outweigh the minuses.

      Protocol compatibility should be considered when the device is purchased.

      My Sony Ericsson T610 phone is OBEX compatible, but it comes with software to sync with Outlook specifically. There is no such included software for syncing with Mozilla, Eudora, or other e-mail clients. So while it's standards compatible, the executive with the T610 software installed will call IT after the switch to Mozilla and say "my phone won't sync with my new e-mail." IT will have to deal with the problem, including finding out what he means by "sync", what data he wants to move, training him to use some new program or method, etc.

      I go back to my original point: It's better to have China jail the spammer and have his family starve than it is to let the spammer continue harming businesess and individuals with his spam.

  65. Re:Not unless it is reduced by a fator of 1000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And why don't the US spammers relay through US servers, choosing HK ones instead? Sounds like your ISP's need to change their attitudes, as most of the US ones have.

  66. Re:Why is this a Chinese issue by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

    The ISPs are unresponsive to emails, some don't have abuse@ addresses

    How is that different from a lot of ISPs in the rest of the world?

    Here in the UK, NTL still have an abuse@ address... shame they drop all the mail that goes to it into the bitbucket. They also have an abuse form on their website which they dutifully ignore - frankly they just don't give a damn.

    We're having this problem at the Swansea University Computer Society, which has been well documented. (Not a spammer, but a virussed windows machine that's spamming the hell out of us).

  67. Re:Not unless it is reduced by a fator of 1000 by csk_1975 · · Score: 1

    And why don't the US spammers relay through US servers, choosing HK ones instead? Sounds like your ISP's need to change their attitudes, as most of the US ones have.

    Wasn't there just a story about comcast being a huge originator/relayer of spam?

    Yeah it sucks to have your server blocked because of the country you live in. Unfortunately blocking by country actually works and is an easy option. Blocking HK Cable, China, Korea and Comcast would reduce my spam load by heaps - unfortunately its not an option :(

    Actually I am currently receiving spam from Singapore companies (I am in Singapore) which is being relayed via zombies in the USA - usually on comcast broadband! So it cuts both ways.

  68. Good news! by varjag · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now, when they will outsource the recipients to China as well?

    I just see it:
    "Enlarge your party membership"
    "Hot XXX caucasian teens"

    --
    Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.
  69. Comcast is the problem, people by Electric+Eye · · Score: 1

    I've often wondered if the idiots working for Comcast really gave a poop about the amount of spam that comes through their network. Well, apparently, I wasn't the only one. Bastards:
    http://news.com.com/Attack%2Bof%2BComca st%27s%2BIn ternet%2Bzombies/2010-1034_3-5218178.html?

  70. Re:Why is this a Chinese issue by The+Ultimate+Fartkno · · Score: 1



    It doesn't do fake card numbers, but...

    www.astrobastards.net/uc

  71. Re:Awesome by Elvisisdead · · Score: 1

    By the same logic, any con-man with a family should stay out of jail? Fines, spammers can pay and will accept as a cost of business. Jail time is a punishment. They'll get to see lots of enlarged penises that they helped to create.

    --

    "Want in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first." - My Dad
  72. In communist China... by mr_mischief · · Score: 2, Funny

    the spam blocks you!

  73. The last I heard from any real spammer... by edunbar93 · · Score: 1

    was that he *paid* an ISP in china to relay his crap.

    So now it's not just an "unwitting error" but "intentionally irritating".

    --
    "No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
  74. Correction by kbahey · · Score: 1

    Not to nit pick or anything, but the 800 million pieces of SPAM did not all reach human recipients.

    Many of the e-mail addresses are inactive, obsolete, aliases, role accounts, ...etc. as previous articles on /. has shown (analysis of CDs).

    I would say (from memory, I could be wrong) that only 20% of the addresses they use every end up showing up in a human's inbox.

    Not that SPAM is less obnoxious, but the way you calculated it needs to factor in the real fraction that reaches humans.

  75. Fast, effective 'Network'-style spam filtering.... by iamcf13 · · Score: 1

    Mad as hell about spam?

    Can't take it anymore?

    Do what I do now....

    Take away the 'Spammer's Character Set'!

  76. Who needs 'em? by toohardtofindaunique · · Score: 1

    Who needs 'em?

    $IPTABLES -A INPUT -i eth1 -p tcp --dport 25 --syn -j SMTPCHK

    # Asian Pacific Network
    $IPTABLES -A SMTPCHK -p tcp -s 61.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
    $IPTABLES -A SMTPCHK -p tcp -s 202.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
    $IPTABLES -A SMTPCHK -p tcp -s 203.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
    $IPTABLES -A SMTPCHK -p tcp -s 210.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
    $IPTABLES -A SMTPCHK -p tcp -s 211.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
    $IPTABLES -A SMTPCHK -p tcp -s 218.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
    $IPTABLES -A SMTPCHK -p tcp -s 219.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
    $IPTABLES -A SMTPCHK -p tcp -s 220.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
    $IPTABLES -A SMTPCHK -p tcp -s 221.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
    $IPTABLES -A SMTPCHK -p tcp -s 222.0.0.0/8 -j DROP

    Works for me! (among other netBLOCKS I use)

  77. Re:Not unless it is reduced by a fator of 1000 by Knightmare · · Score: 1
    About the only answer I can give you is... yep.

    You can't be ignoring the crucial detail that there must be a reason they are spamming from China right? As with most things in life, the path of least resistance is often chosen. If China ISPs cared, they could reduce the attractiveness of their IP space to spammers. And it seems that that is now the case. Also, you realize you are talking to people who can't actually effect change right? While I wish there was currently a better solution than massive iptables scripts on my mailservers, there just isn't... The numbers don't lie, here is the count of spams blocked since May 23rd on my smallest mailserver:
    grep "DPT=25" /var/log/messages |wc -l
    932
    I will be VERY pleased when I don't have to segregate port traffic based on it's country of origin, but until I see some change, the blocks are staying in place. Luckily I log all dropped connections from those IP ranges to port 25, so I will know when it's safe to open the doors again.
  78. an american perspective ... by Heisenbug · · Score: 1

    ... like you need another one. :)

    As I see it, our government has been hijacked by a gang of shortsighted evildoers. It was in Newsweek, fer chrissake -- Bush/Rumsfeld asked around for ways to invalidate the Geneva Convention. Colin Powell replied that reversing 50 years of policy in that regard, with the goal of legalizing torture on the people of any country we occupied, was both a stupid and dangerous policy. He was overruled.

    http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4999734/site/newsweek/

    We've been betrayed as a people, at the highest level of government, and I sincerely hope we kick their ass this November. ... still and all, I'm glad that setting up a website with that goal in mind isn't a crime.

  79. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so his family can starve

    i dont have an sympathy for an impotent person commiting crimes against others, just the same i dont have someone who managed to procreate.

    you commit crimes and steal from others, you can get free food and housing ala prison.

    I would be very careful to point conartists/prostitutes/drugdealers/mafioso out to law enforcement; I would hate to have on my conscience that some guy with a family to feed is sitting in jail just for conartists/prostitutes/drugdealers/mafioso because I cooperated with his government in prosecuting him.

    so any crime committed to feed a family is okay.
    well im off to the bank for a LARGE withdrawl.

  80. Beyond the statistics... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Just probably...
    1. one of the "enlargement" junk mails reached a fellow inmate
    2. who ordered and used that stuff while still "at large (though much smaller than today ;-))"
    3. which turns out to have actually worked as advertised
    4. by the time these two jailbirds meet in the shower room...
    ...so if he should ever spam again (seven years later), it'll possibly rather be for "shrinking pills" ;-/
  81. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by benna · · Score: 1

    Well if someone wants go to a sidewalk in new york and tell his political views to people walking buy he is free to do so. There is no consent. I think consent is a bogus line to draw.

    --
    "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
  82. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by benna · · Score: 1

    His e-mail address is flooded with pictures of people fucking horses.

    Let's be honest here. When was the last time you got an unsolicited picture of people fucking horses in your inbox. As for the hardcore porn arguement I think there is someting wrong with a society in which we hide from people how we reproduce or get pleasure.

    --
    "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
  83. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by Dimensio · · Score: 1

    Well if someone wants go to a sidewalk in new york and tell his political views to people walking buy he is free to do so.

    Actually, there's a point at which it goes from "free speech" to "harassment". Moreover, if said someone enters private property and appropriates resources that they don't own to make their point, then they've trespassed and stolen.

    The "consent" factor is an issue because spammers are foisting the cost of accepting unsolicited advertising onto computer equipment that they do not own without the consent of the owners.

  84. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by benna · · Score: 1

    Well most people that send email don't get consent first. If I was going to email my friend and had to call him first to make sure its ok that would be ridiculous. That you chose to have an email address is consent enough for anyone to send you email. I'm not saying I support spammerers I just would like people to use arguements that I can't easily shoot down.

    --
    "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
  85. Happy day for filters by DigitalSpyder · · Score: 1

    Yay, so maybe now we can look forward to pulling out entire /16s+ from our filters. Next stop for Steve Linford: Brazil.

  86. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by Dimensio · · Score: 1

    Well most people that send email don't get consent first.

    Not everyone asks to send business-related faxes. Nonetheless, junk faxes are illegal because they are a cost-shifted form of advertising.

  87. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by Thomas+Shaddack · · Score: 1
    You may like to rig the SMS alerts to add the message subject, and issue an official policy that the problem has to be briefly described in the subject line.

    You may also consider to implement a digital signature scheme for the mail-to-SMS mails, and not beep you for unsigned mails; if the customers can't sign the mails themselves, you may set them up a simple web form that lets them beep you.

    There are more solutions. What you pick depends on the exact nature of your problem. :)

  88. Re:Not unless it is reduced by a fator of 1000 by 1u3hr · · Score: 1
    Also, you realize you are talking to people who can't actually effect change right?

    That's exactly my point. My mail is blocked because of the actions of people retaliating against other people I have no power to affect in the slightest. I'm collateral damage.

    You can't be ignoring the crucial detail that there must be a reason they are spamming from China right?

    But what does that have to do with me? It's my personal mail that is blocked. And again, most of the spam originates in the US. If you quarantined Boca Raton most of the world's spam would disappear. Ridiculous to contemplate; but you and people like you are fine with blocking a billion people because of the actions of a few dozen.

  89. Re:"the scourge of junk email" by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1
    I think the first problem you need to solve is to get rid of that guy holding a gun to your head making you use email. You mean nobody's forcing you to use email?

    Nobody is forcing me to use electricity either. Your argument is that if we want to use email, we should have to let other people fill our email boxes with crap, and that we have to pay their advertising costs when they do so. Fuck that, and fuck you.

    Spammers are just people looking to make money.

    So are the rest of the conmen, thieves, and muggers in the world. What's your point?

    How is banning SPAM any different than banning VoIP

    Consent.

    How is it different from criticizing politicians?

    How is filling my email box with crap I don't want and won't read related to criticizing politicians? I criticize politicians every day. (I'm a republican from Texas - and I hate George Bush and everything he's done since being elected.) Did you catch that? I just criticized a politician, and I didn't have to send a million unwanted spams to do it.

    I want to SPAM to go away.

    Bull shit. If you did, you wouldn't be pretending that spammers are honest taxpayers who are just trying to earn a living, when you know damn well they are crooks and thieves.

    Your idea of a "free internet" is that anyone can do anything they want, any way they want, to whoever they want, with no limits. But, just as in real life, your right to swing your fist ends just before it reaches the other guys nose. Spammers bloody millions of noses a day, and you want to protect their "freedom" to do that. Fuck that, and fuck you.