FTC Recommends ISPs Disconnect Spam Zombies

Mike Markley writes "CNN is carrying a story about the the FTC's plans and concerns around spam zombies. They say they will be identifying such zombie hosts and notifying ISPs, and are recommending that the ISPs disconnect indicated users. There's also a recommendation likely to raise the ire of the geekier sorts: that ISPs only permit users to send mail through their own servers (presumably by blocking port 25 outbound)." From the article: "Law enforcers in 25 other countries, from Bulgaria to Peru, are also participating in the campaign, the FTC said. Absent from the list of cooperating countries was China, where experts say rapid growth and a relative lack of technical sophistication have led to a large number of zombie computers."

Comments

Spam Zombies?

[spotmonk]

It's enough that I get spam from life people..
but now spam from the undead?

Re:Spam Zombies?

[Rei]

dear brain owner,

compliments of the season to you. I am Barrister Urrrrrrrrrrrr Guurrrrrrrr. I represent Rrrrrrrr Rrrrrrrrrr, son of the late gen. Rrrrrrr Urrrrrrrgh, who was the former military head of state in Transylvania. he died in 1312. since his death, the family has been losing a lot of money due to vindictive church officials who are bent on dealing with the family. based on this therefore, the family has asked me to seek for a foreign partner who can work with us as to move out the total sum of us$75,000,000.00 ( seventy five million united states dollars ) in gold, presently in their possession. this money was of course, acquired by the late president and is now kept secretly by the family. the Swiss government froze all the accounts of the family in Switzerland in 1571, and some other countries would soon follow to do the same. This bid by some government officials to deal with this family has made it necessary that we seek your assistance in receiving this money and in investing it on behalf of the family.

This must be a joint venture transaction and we must all work together. since this money is very heavy, extra security measures have been taken to protect it from theft or seizure, pending when agreement is reached on when and how to move it into any of your nominated bank accounts. please contact me so we can arrange to meet you at a graveyard of your convenience in the Transylvania area to complete the transaction. as it is in a rather large box, please bring a chainsaw to assist in cutting it open.

Note: Please send your reply through (Urrrrrrrrrrrr.Guurrrrrrrr@sco.com)

Anyone got bandwidth for new venture?

[conteXXt]

1. Get fcc to 'advise' isps to block 25.
2. wait for futility among the geeks to set in.
3. set up vpn server for aforementioned geeks.
(real verified reg required)(paid service but
(Real Cheap)
4. profit!!!

any takers?

Re:What about VOIP/911 services?

[winkydink]

You're betting on your ISP's reliability to get you through in an emergency? Perhaps natural selection is making a comeback.

Or...

[jd]

Use X.400 - it's a lot more powerful than SMTP, supports receipts for e-mails, is much harder for spammers to inject fake-mails, and is ruthlessly standardized.

Well, it does have the drawback that nobody uses it anymore, but that does mean you never have to worry about your mailbox being flooded AND you get an excuse on why you didn't turn up to that important meeting that was called electronically.

port 25, zombies, DNS cache stuffing, debris

[Senor_Programmer]

Find a buddy with a mail server and use it. Port 25? You should use port 22 to talk to your mail server from anywhere other than it's console. Seriously, if you want to tx&rx mail from wherever you are there are plenty of servers available to friends and friends of friends.

ISPs should block zombies. A simple auto-generated email aroused by traffic level and requesting an explanation should be sufficient. Blcok all except port 53and whatever the heck VOIP uses if there is no reply.

DNS cache stuffing is still a problem. Who needs an open proxy when you're a legal host?

A bounty on spammers perhaps? Outsource to Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, Belarus, Ukraine, Pakistan, or any number of places.

Hell, my lawn guy in USA, and this is an honest to $deity(s) quote...

"Twenty dollah? TWENTY DOLLAH? I KEE a MAN FO TWENTY DOLLAH!"

Re:Go ahead, block 25

[Anonymous Coward]

******WARNING******
Dear Genesis of the Term PEBKAC:

All of the files on your PC have been encrypted. If you EVER want to view your p0rn again, please leave $250 on the bench at the corner of 9th St. and Nimrod Dr. AND, call your ISP and insist that they open port 25 for you.

Have a nice day.

Joe

Let me guess...

[Lord Kano]

I'm so sick of this "Let's surrender our internet because of Microsoft" bullshit. I'm sick enough of it to burn karma by posting this crap that's going to get modded into oblivion.

You, my friend, must be a Republican.

LK

Re:Go ahead, block 25

[Bombcar]

You'll then see trojans that say, "Call your ISP and ask them to unblock port 25 to see hot naked networks!"

Bet your last dollar on it.

Re:Blocking port 25 seems reasonable

[the eric conspiracy]

UID that's far lower than yours.

LOL.

Re:Blocking port 25 seems reasonable

[Amazing Proton Boy]

Yep. ;->

Seller of the Gods!

[plover]

Fear Me, Fear Me!

I am Zeus, Seller of the Gods.

Opening bids up for Narcissus. He's in beautiful shape! Any takers for Narcissus? (Sorry, sir, but you cannot bid on yourself.)

What am I bid for this muse, Apollo? Anyone care to bid on Apollo? Slightly used, I'm letting him go for a paean.

We've got goddesses, too! Aphrodite is going fast! She always goes fast!

Oh, you meant "seller of the goods"? Never mind.

Re:Go ahead, block 25

[timbo234]

Optus here in Australia blocked port 25 a while back like this. At first you had to ring them to get it undone but then they put a thing on the web page so you could just click to unblock it permantently for your account. It said something scary about you accepting all responsibility for any spam that comes from your computers.

Personally I think this is the right approach since most people who want to access externeal SMTP servers are cluey enough to get it unblocked. Whereas it still targets the rest of the customers who wouldn't notice or take action if their computer grew devil horns and started glowing an evil red as an indication that it had been zombied by a spammer.