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Date:      27 Aug 2002 12:23:20 -0700
From:      Ken McGlothlen <mcglk@artlogix.com>
To:        Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za>
Cc:        Bart Matthaei <bart@dreamflow.nl>, freebsd-security@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Administrivia: Discussion - Making this list subscriber-only
Message-ID:  <86hehgw1g7.fsf@ralf.artlogix.com>
In-Reply-To: <200208271244.g7RCiBl5019984@grimreaper.grondar.org>
References:  <20020827122623.GC34393@heresy.dreamflow.nl> <200208271244.g7RCiBl5019984@grimreaper.grondar.org>

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Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za> writes:

| We already have that. Spammers are very inventive when it comes to evading
| filters.

And ultimately, filters are not a good solution.  They're easily defeatable,
and the more stringent you make the filter, the more false positives you get.

The only way to really deal with it is social engineering, and in general, that
means blocking SMTP traffic from problematic hosts.

The downside is that many of our South Korean, Chinese and Brazilian
participants would no longer be able to submit mail until their ISPs start
implementing anti-spam policies and secure their servers.  And when their mail
is blocked, people complain to their ISPs.  But that's a good thing---the more
responsible ISPs out there, the better.  I have no problem removing blocks when
ISPs become responsible netizens.

I'm even willing to donate my blocklist to the FreeBSD group.  It's pretty
aggressive, mind you, but I'm pretty vigilant about trying hard not to block
legitimate traffic.  (This is occasionally a problem.  For example, bn.com
recently switched their mail lists over to doubleclick.net, which I've had
spamming problems with in the past.  So I no longer get bn.com stuff---but
hopefully, bn.com will start using another provider, and then it won't be a
problem.  And if not, oh, well.)  I update it regularly.

I also think rather highly of the following RBLs:

        whois.rfc-ignorant.org
        ipwhois.rfc-ignorant.org
        formmail.relays.monkeys.com
        relays.ordb.org
        bl.spamcop.net

My Postfix installation checks my own blocklist first, and then falls back to
the RBLs listed above.


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