Not really to do with Virus but rather interesting information provided by Scott Perry, I thought I would share it considering the thread has to do with challenge-responses.
Challenge/Response systems are seriously flawed. Reasons include: [1] You end up being a spammer (the majority of spam sent to you will result in confirmation requests being sent to innocent victims) [2] Spammers now send pretend confirmation requests, presumably to make people less likely to respond to C/R requests [3] Many people respond to C/R requests that they never initiated (so you could still get spam or viruses). A number of people in the anti-spam community have said that they always respond to challenges, whether or not they initiated the E-mail. [4] C/R companies have been known to send out spam and harvest addresses of people sending to their customers, and apparently sell those addresses to spammers [5] The C/R system is patented, so most anti-spam programs using C/R have legal liabilities waiting to be ironed out [6] Confirmations sent to mailing lists won't work [7] Confirmations sent to others using C/R won't work (they send you an E-mail, your C/R system challenges them, but their C/R system challenges you, yours then challenges them, etc.). [8] People that offer a free service end up losing money (by spending time investigating and responding to C/R systems, dealing with spam received as a result, etc.) and sometimes get fed up with C/R systems and eventually stop offering free advice (never knowing how many people won't get the advice), harming everybody. [9] Legitimate E-mail from automated services won't be seen (such as when ordering products online) -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Colbeck, Andrew Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 3:06 PM To: Declude.Virus@declude.com Subject: RE: [Declude.Virus] Is this sort of stuff necessary on a list? Thanks, Chuck. I appreciate your contribution. I've added several strings from this Zaep email to my filter that blocks lousy Challenge-Response emails. Andrew 8) -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chuck Schick Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 11:49 AM To: Declude. Virus Subject: [Declude.Virus] Is this sort of stuff necessary on a list? I posted to list about a virus problem then I get this stupid (IMHO) challenge-response stuff. If everyone did this on all the lists I belong to - I would do a posting and then spend the next 3 days answering all the challenge-responses. I think I will report this as spam. Dear Greg Hedgepath - get a clue. Chuck Schick Warp 8, Inc. (303)-421-5140 www.warp8.com Dear Chuck, <snip> Thank you, Greg Hedgepath --- This E-mail came from the Declude.Virus mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and type "unsubscribe Declude.Virus". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com. --- This E-mail came from the Declude.Virus mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and type "unsubscribe Declude.Virus". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com. __________ NOD32 1.1086 (20050502) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.nod32.com --- This E-mail came from the Declude.Virus mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and type "unsubscribe Declude.Virus". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com.
