RE: SMTP store and forward requires DSN for integrity (was Re:Clueless anti-virus )

[Todd Vierling <tv () duh org>]

On Fri, 9 Dec 2005, Geo. wrote:

> I hear you but you and I both know AV companies are not going to give up the
> automated spamming feature that easily.

I don't doubt that.  Their generated UBE is often commercial in nature, too,
because they usually carry an advertising link along with the spew.

> A standard message beginning they might be willing to impliment

I have enough regex filters, thank you.  I don't plan to encourage yet more
UBE by standardizing it -- think [YOU-]CAN-SPAM for antivirus apps.  I
should not have to waste the bandwidth cost at DATA for yet more UBE.

> As for the quantity you receive, its nothing compared to the amount of spam
> those infected machines are soon going to be generating.

Actually, I get about ten to twenty times as much virus blowback as I get
spam from trojan-zombie boxes.

That's because the virus blowback comes from otherwise "reputable" MTAs,
whereas the spam comes form zombies that are often already blacklisted, or
are in known dynamic pools that are blocked here.  Thus the zombies get
blocked long before DATA, but the "reputable" MTAs sending the backscatter
don't get caught so early.

-- 
-- Todd Vierling <tv () duh org> <tv () pobox com> <todd () vierling name>