Re: IBM to offer service to bounce unwanted e-mail back to the

[Henry Linneweh <hrlinneweh () sbcglobal net>]

This software is free at
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/fairuce

-henry




--- "Anne P. Mitchell, Esq." <amitchell () isipp com>
wrote:
> On Mar 23, 2005, at 12:37 PM, RSK wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Mar 22, 2005 at 10:24:37AM -0800, Andreas
> Ott wrote:
> > >
> http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/22/technology/ibm_spam/
> > If this write-up is accurate,
>
> It's not. From the http://www.aunty-spam.com
> website:
>
> IBM Not Spamming Spammers! FairUCE is About Fair
> Use, Not Abuse!
>
> Did you hear? IBM is spamming spammers! It’s all
> over the Internet, and  
> tongues are a’wagging! Except, it ain’t so. IBM is
> not spamming  
> spammers.
>
>
>   Whether you think that spamming spammers is right
> or wrong, IBM ain’t  
> doing it, and shame on CNN for getting it so wrong,
> and making IBM look  
> so irresponsible, and in league with the likes of
> Lycos’ “Make Love Not  
> Spam” DOSsing Screensaver program, and the notorious
> Mugu Maurauder  
> bandwidth sucking program.
>
> You can’t really blame the folks who read CNN’s
> horribly wrong piece  
> for spreading the rumour, after all it was quite
> sensationalist:
>
> “Spamming spammers?
> IBM to offer service to bounce unwanted e-mail back
> to the computers  
> that sent them.
>   March 22, 2005: 12:22 PM EST
>
>   NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - IBM unveiled a service
> Tuesday that sends  
> unwanted e-mails back to the spammers who sent them.
>
> The new IBM (Research) service, known as FairUCE,
> essentially uses a  
> giant database to identify computers that are
> sending spam. E-mails  
> coming from a computer on the spam database are sent
> directly back to  
> the computer, not just the e-mail account, that sent
> them.”
>
>   Wrong, wrong, wrong.
>
> About the only thing which the article got right is
> that the program is  
> called “FairUCE". FairUCE, according to IBM’s own
> FairUCE website,  
> readily available for anyone to read (cough…CNN
> reporters..cough), is a  
> “spam filter that stops spam by verifying sender
> identity instead of  
> filtering content".
>
> Let’s say that again: FairUCE is a spam filter that
> stops spam by  
> verifying sender identity instead of filtering
> content.
>
> If FairUCE can’t verify sender identity, then it
> goes into  
> challenge-response mode, sending a challenge email
> to the sender, to  
> which the sender must reply, to demonstrate that it
> is not a spambot  
> sending the mail in question, but a real live
> person.
>
> Here is IBM’s explanation of how the FairUCE system
> works:
>
> “Technically, FairUCE tries to find a relationship
> between the envelope  
> sender’s domain and the IP address of the client
> delivering the mail,  
> using a series of cached DNS look-ups. For the vast
> majority of  
> legitimate mail, from AOL to mailing lists to vanity
> domains, this is a  
> snap. If such a relationship cannot be found,
> FairUCE attempts to find  
> one by sending a user-customizable
> challenge/response. This alone  
> catches 80% of UCE and very rarely challenges
> legitimate mail.”
>
>   Now, being kind, it’s possible that the good folks
> at CNN mistook the  
> sending of the challenge for “spamming the
> spammer"....
>
> (Rest at  
http://www.aunty-spam.com/ibm-not-spamming-spammers-fairuce-is-about-
> fair-use-not-abuse/)
>
> Anne