Re: The ..... worm

Francois Suter wrote:

>> Mark, would it cause anyone any great problems if posts gated onto the
>> newsgroups had their email addresses removed, and would this be
>> possible? I can't see that it would cause anybody any problems since
>> casual readers could then still read/post to the group, and anyone
>> involved with any of the postgresql lists long enough for this to be a
>> problem would probably end up subscribing via email anyway. Anyone else
>> have any feelings on this? I know it's too late for most of us but it
>> might help some newbies...
>
>
> I am not sure this is really going to help, because the e-mail
> addresses are also harvested from the web-based archives. Still
> doesn't such a reknowned ML tool as Majordomo have a feature that can
> hide e-mail addresses (like automatically write them as someone AT any
> DOT com) in the web archives?
>
> Cheers.
>
> ---------------
> Francois
>
> Home page: http://www.monpetitcoin.com/
>
> "Would Descartes have programmed in Pascal?" - Umberto Eco
>
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
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>
>
Unfortunatly harvesting (.*) at (.*)( dot (.*)){1,3} is not difficult
either.

I would not be suprised if harvesting tools don't already support most
obfuscation techniques.

The only way to quell spam is by having laws put in place that will make
such activities illegal,
and to force ISP's to enforce a minimum standard for their acceptable
use policy.

I work for an ISP and we have dumped a number of customers for spam
related activities.
Even though there is nothing legaly wrong with what they were doing, it
is against our acceptable
use policy. Unsolicited email cost us money, usualy more than what the
service costs the perpetrator.

In Canada their are general rules that CAIP {Canadian Assosiation of
Internet Providers} expect
members to follow. On the other hand starting in January 2004 the new
privacy laws come into
effect in Canada and in some ways may protect unsolicited email
perpetrators by making customers
log activities private. Although in raw form, ISP are expected to keep
archives of logs in case a
warant is issued. It makes enforcement of AUP's difficult, but internet
access is not a right and we
are not obliged to renew access to anyone once the service they paid for
expires.

If more ISP's banned such activities, there would not be such a problem.
But I know from experience
that once you have tracked down a spammer or hacker, it can be next to
impossible to get many ISP's
to stop the perpetrator. Most of the time law enforcement are just as
disinterested, unless the action is
media worthy.

Good luck
--

Guy Fraser
Network Administrator
The Internet Centre
780-450-6787 , 1-888-450-6787

There is a fine line between genius and lunacy, fear not, walk the
line with pride. Not all things will end up as you wanted, but you
will certainly discover things the meek and timid will miss out on.