Microsoft Offers Tools to Spamming ISPs

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."

Comments

Re:fp

[xwildph]

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 For this reason their list is outdated and unreliable.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