IETF Approves SPF and Sender-ID

NW writes "According to the records in the IETF's database (here and here), both the SPF and Sender-ID anti-spam proposals were tentatively approved by the IESG (the approval board of the IETF) as experimental standards. It remains to be seen whether any of them will actually put a dent into spam." At the same time, the FTC has opened a central site about email authentication.

Comments

A central database is open to abuse.

[CyricZ]

Of course we will never see a central database of mailservers. That has been proposed before, but will always be unsuitable for the Internet. Remember, the Internet is meant to be decentralized. And a centralized database is open to abuse by governments, corporations, and whoever runs it (or provides the funding for it).

There's nothing to stop spammers from infiltrating such a system, via legitimate and illegitmate means. So it just plain won't work.

Between the fact that it is easy to abuse, it just won't work and it won't provide any benefits over existing systems, your system is just a bad idea (no personal offense meant, of course).

Re:What's wrong with this?

[JohnGrahamCumming]

I'm not going to say you're a moron, but how do you allow for legitimate unsolicited email from people?

Currently I receive lots of unsolicited mails from people that I want to hear from. Let's call these people "customers".

Your scheme would have me polling only people I have already talked to.

John.

Re:SPF in the real world

[ryanvm]

I stopped answering my telephone yesterday. So far nobody has called and complained.

Want to stop spam?

[swordgeek]

Arrest the fuckers. Throw Scott Richter in jail for a decade or two for fraud and theft. Break the back of the organised crime syndicates that are profiting. Revoke FDIC/CDIC approval for banks who benefit from mortgage spam. Have the CEOs of explicitly supportive ISPs (MCI, for instance) arrested and fined tens of millions of dollars. Threaten economic sanctions against countries who don't take reasonable action.

Like most crime, the laws exist to stop the small criminals, and have no ability to nail the true sources. Technology is always used to try to fix this problem, and always fails.