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Microsoft Offers Tools to Spamming ISPs

Posted by Zonk on from the pork-checking-tools dept.

Michael writes "Computer Business Review reports that 'Internet service providers curious to know how much spam they are sending Hotmail users will be able to get detailed reports on the topic, courtesy of a service Microsoft launched in beta yesterday.' Microsoft's new Smart Network Data Services, a part of the larger MSN Portmaster initiative, allows the owners of IP blocks to view reports on the volume of email being sent from their networks to Hotmail users, and see how much of that email is being flagged as spam."

6 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And the real question by darkonc · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Is: will the ISP's sending most of the spam care?

    Sure they will... It'll help them calibrate their spam-blocking techniques. If the volume goes up (or stays the same) and the hit count drops, then they'll know that something's working especially well.

    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
  2. BTW, you can do similar by Colin+Smith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    On your own network fairly easily with some perl scripts, MRTG, Cricket, Zabbix and similar. We used popfile for classification.

    --
    Deleted
  3. Re:fp by xwildph · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Very little, i'd say. The thing is, a lot of the spam doesn't actually come from hotmail.

    The bulk of it seems to come from virus infected spam zombie networks, carrying a fake from & return address specifying hotmail, or worse, some poor schmuck who has nothing whatsoever to do with the spam.

    What's the solution? well, aside from lining up the spammers against a brick wall and shooting'em all, the SPF system seems to look promising, as do the well-run blocklists.

    On the subject of blocklists, spamcop, spamhaus, and dsbl all seem quite good. I can't recommend sorbs at all, because they attempt to extort money from ISPs. If a server is blacklisted, say, because some end-user had a virus or security incident, they insist that the isp pay them money in order to get un-listed. For this reason their list is outdated and unreliable.

    XW

  4. Now that we've warned you ... by LorenzoV · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I suppose MS's first step is to provide warnings to ISPs about their spamming customers and zombies. The next and obvious question is, What Comes Next?

    Will MS(Hotmail) begin blocking those ISP's?
    Will MS send them a notice saying something like, "... after $DATE we will bill you $BIGBUX per thousand spams. By continuing to spam our customers you agree to pay."

    Frankly, it sounds good to me. Let the BigGorillas set the tone and practice for spam.

    I made this up. Might happen. Might not. YMMV

  5. MS is far bigger than Spamhaus by jfengel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think that Microsoft may carry more weight than Spamhaus does with the ISPs. If Hotmail starts declining mail, users get pissed. If Hotmail cuts all connections, so that users from an entire ISP can't get on, users get rabid.

    I don't know what Microsoft has in mind, if anything, but a gentle threat may just be their first salvo.

  6. Re:What about everyone else ? by jeffg · · Score: 2, Interesting

    AOL has offered a feedback loop for years.

    Information on how to activate it is available at http://postmaster.info.aol.com/fbl/index.html.

    MSN/Hotmail's offering is quite a bit different, and I'm not yet prepared to offer an opinion on which interface/mechanism is more useful.

    Right now, we find the AOL feedback loop quite useful, as do many others.

    More feedback loops for large mail providers are documented in this Spamhaus FAQ entry