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Fighting Spam with DNA Sequencing Algorithms

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the crushing-the-mouse-with-a-mallet dept.

Christopher Cashell writes "According to this article from NewScientist, IBM's Anti-Spam Filtering Research Project has started testing a new spam filtering algorithm, an algorithm originally designed for DNA sequence analysis. The algorithm has been named Chung-Kwei (after a feng-shui talisman that protects the home against evil spirits). Justin Mason, of SpamAssassin, is quoted as saying that it looks promising. A paper is available on the algorithm, too (PDF)."

2 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Love SA... by ajs · · Score: 5, Informative

    You have to love SpamAssassin for it's very Perlish approach to spam filtering... "hey, there's a cool new way to filter spam... throw it in!"

    I love this mostly because it means that SA is a moving target. Spammers can figure out how to defeat pieces of it, but it deploys a wide range of static, dynamic, network-based and user-driven tests that changes so much that spammers simply can't afford to keep up.

  2. Re:Feng Shui hardware by BJH · · Score: 5, Informative

    If I'm not mistaken, Chung Kwei is the figure known as Shouki in Japanese. He's usually described in English as the "Demon Queller", which seems a suitable-enough symbol for an anti-spam program.

    I mean, come on - don't anti-spam programs have the coolest names? SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor...