Using Email Networks as P2P Spam Filters

Oscar Boykin writes "New Scientist is running a story on using the social network in email as a P2P network. The idea is that email networks have structure that is conducive to a type of search called percolation search . This means email clients could query the social network of email users to filter spam. This story is based on a preprint available."

Comments

Nice...but not necessary

[PenguinBoyDave]

Since switching to Thunderbird, I get nearly no spam...maybe one or two per day. I like fancy stuff, but when simple works, go with it!

Re:Nice...but not necessary

[Dukael_Mikakis]

I use gmail, which does an excellent job at filtering spam.

But I think this could even be a step back. Like the parent says, I think most informed people have solved the issue of filtering spam pretty effectively (Thunderbird, Yahoo, Gmail, Bayesian filters, etc.) and so we don't generally *see* much spam.

The *REAL* problem with spam is traffic and network pollution. Spam wastes a ridiculous amount of bandwidth and (through spyware) hijacks our systems' cycles to do something that is (with filters) ultimately to no end. This seemingly won't solve the bandwidth consumption issue and might worsen the problem by polling all your friends over the network and then using your personal cycles to scan said email against all the known spam on your friends' computers.

People forget that the true detriment of spam these days is the traffic it causes, not cluttering your inbox (if you're smart).

Potential for harm

[davidwr]

Imagine the potential for harm if I infiltrated a social network and then identified my enemies as spammers, either deliberately or because I or the software agent I use was somehow tricked into doing so.

Social network-based spam-detection is a part of, not a total, solution, and its limits need to be recognized.

Isn't this basically how Razor works?

[forevermore]

Granted, I just skimmed the article, but isn't this exactly how Razor works? (simplified) Communities of people flag messages, senders, etc. as spam, and the mail server (or in my case, spamassassin) compares the messages to the community spam archive for matches before delivery.