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University Of Calgary To Offer Course On Spam
jrcsnet writes "CBC is reporting that the University of Calgary is going to be adding yet another controversial course (The first, on computer viruses, was covered on Slashdot a while back). According to the article, 'Students will be taught how to write programs that create e-mail spam as well as spy software.' While there must be some benefit for everyone else by creating programs to work against these nuisances, is it worth the risk to the rest of us or even to the potential careers of the graduates of the course?"
I happen to chat online occasionally with people who run blogspammer software, and their response to the rel="nofollow" thing to combat blog spam was, "That's history. We're already on to the next thing."
I don't know how much of that is bullshit, and how much is true, but I think that it's important to always be looking for the new potential ways to get spam through so defenses can be prepared before the deluge.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Uh-huh yeah sure we've heard that sort of thing before. Seems more to me like a certain university is getting a lot of funding from companies that make penis enlargement pills.
Anyway has anyone met any college students lately? Try hanging out in Cancun or Daytona during spring break some time: do we really want these kinds of people running loose with the knowledge of how to make spam software and spyware programs? May as well give them loaded machine guns and hand grenades. I am shocked and appalled at yet another example of the intellecutal irresponsibility of so-called "College Professors".
This kind of information is avilable anywhere really. You could run a google search and get a tutorial on creating a spam cannon server. If someone wants to become a spammer, they can do it without the class.
The attractive aspect here is that these students will know the tricks of the trade when it comes to spamming, and you know what they say: It takes a thief to catch a thief.
Would I pay the 300USD pricetag (Which is the going rate for a 3 hour course at my school, plus books) to take this class? No. But the same is said by many students about Archery, Chess, Basket Weaving and many other classes that are seen as electives.
Let's fake an answer for the curious; let's fake it all for the fame.
Where you were taught theory and higher level thought about subjects. Now we are having people go to college for the pure reason to get a job when they graduate.
What has happened to education?
Let's see.. I learn about: * The SMTP protocol. * How to telnet in to an SMTP server * How it will accept any input as to who I am without checking it, and send mail. * How to write a shell script to automate the above Oh wait.. I can already do that. This better be a 1 credit course. But seriously, it gives these students information about why we have a spam problem, and vital background information so that they can fix it. These students are e-mail users themselves (most spammers aren't, and the one I heard on NPR that is uses I Hate Spam(R) :-)
These students hate spam just as much as we do.
Gmail, anyone? Automatic Bayesian Filtering across many users.. works great.
--Sam
programmers writing viruses and spamming tools as there are now if there were more good paying jobs for people who like to program? It doesn't matter what you teach people ...it matters what you pay them to do with their skill.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Can you imagine going to a doctor who's never studied viruses? Knowing how easy it would be for a contagion to spread across the globe and wipe everyone out, do you think it's a good idea for money-hungry corporations to be playing around w/ virus strains in their labs? Would you support sending American troops to Iraq w/out showing them how easy it is to build an Improvised Explosive Device out of pretty much anything that needs batteries?
Yeah, I didn't think so.
Every single computer scientist in training should have a fundamental understanding of computer security. And if learning means doing, then computer scientists should be taught how to write viruses, send spam and remotely 0wn b0xes. And don't let them graduate if they can't.
[o]_O
Non-accredited? The University of Calgary is an public, accredited institution. It is funded by the Province of Alberta, as are all the other universities in Alberta.
AFAIK, in Canada, there isn't such a thing as a non-accredited university. That would be fraudulent!
Those topics are covered in machine learning courses actually. Pretty well every curriculum I've seen has this sort of material in it. I've taken one such course and found it extremely interesting. The material is so incredibly useful though that I don't think anyone would call it a course on anti-spam. The fact is that these learning techniques have far-reaching benefits beyond classifying email.
But the really interesting stuff I think is mostly left for grad students who specialize a little in the topic.
This has already been done:
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I love my sig.
It's the same philosphy that all the computer hacking / security courses I took in college followed. If you're going to be a system administrator, you HAVE to know how people are going to try to break into your system, so you can prevent it.
The responsibilty of schools are to teach. It's the responsibility of the student to use the knowledge responsibly.
How much lethal knowledge do you think your average doctor (MD) has?
UTF-8: There and Back Again
Here is the profs webpage and the link to his new course.
The prof is a pretty cool guy but his jokes are AWEFUL! (If you are reading this Dr. Aycock, I'm just kidding. :P)