Thanks, Bill. That is bad news. SpamCop, SpamHaus, SPEWS, MAPS, OpenRBL, OsiruSoft, SORBS and MONKEYS... some tools have stayed and others have just gone away after being heavily attacked. It's becoming more impressive that some sites are *staying* in the game.
It's a telling comment that Ron from Monkeys put forward that he underestimated the depths to which spammers would sink to protect their income. I tend to forget that to me it's an annoyance and that to them it's money in the bank. Andrew 8( -----Original Message----- From: Bill Landry [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 4:54 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Declude.JunkMail] Fw: BLOCK,MISC: MONKEYS.COM: Now retired from spam fighting Well, this makes it official, regretfully monkeys.com is now gone. Bill ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 4:40 PM Subject: BLOCK,MISC: MONKEYS.COM: Now retired from spam fighting > It is with deep regret that I must announce that by 12:00 PM > Pacific Daylight Time tonight, September 22nd, 2003, all > anti-spam services and information that are now, or that > have been provided by MONKEYS.COM to the Internet community > will be terminated. All spam related information will be > removed from the MONKEYS.COM web site and all anti-spam DNS > zone files of MONKEYS.COM will be completely emptied of their > contents. > > Please note that the various MONKEYS.COM anti-spam DNS zone > files will continue to exist, for the indefinite future, > for the convenience of the community, but they will contain > no lisings of any IP addressese or address blocks. I want > to assure everyone, most solemly, that I have no plans whatso- > ever to implement any sorts of ``positive response'' wild- > cards in any of these zones (as happened, unfortunately, in > the Osirusoft case). The MONKEYS.COM anti-spam zones will > remain accessible, but content free for an absolute minimum > of 6 months, and even after that time, ample prior notice > will be provided, both here and elsewhere, regarding any > changes. > > As those of you who have come to know me over the past 8+ years > of spam fighting surely know, I am deeply sorry that I have > to withdraw from this fight, but at this point I clearly > have no choice. I rode out the first massive DDoS against > my site, which lasted for 10 days, from August 19th through > the 29th, but over the past three days I have been massively > DDoS'd again, and I think that the handwriting is now on the > wall. I will simply not be allowed to continue fighting spam. > It simply isn't an option anymore. I don't have either the > bandwidth or the level of interest among either big network > providers or law enforcement authorities that is clearly > necessary in order to fight this kind of concentrated onslaught > from thousands of separate zombie machines at a time. I would > be the first to say that it is a damn shame that the bad guys > have won yet another round, but their really isn't a damn thing > that I can do about it. If there are people on the net that can > DDoS the likes of Yahoo and eBay out of existance (as happened > in the year 2000), then little Ron Guilmette and Monkeys.Com hasn't > got a chance. I can't fight the kinds of attacks that have been > directed at me recently any more than I can fight against the sun > coming up tomorrow. > > To those of you who have come such a long way with me in this > fight, and even to all of those who have criticized my methods, > over time, I want to say thank you. Thank you even for disagreeing > with me when I needed it, and I hope that you will all accept my > apologies for letting you down. I confess that I underestimated > the enemy rather badly. I underestimated both the enemy's level > of sophistication, and also the enemy's level of brute malevolence. > I always knew that spammers had no principals and no ethics, but > up until recently, I had no idea that they could or would stoop this > low, or that they would engage in quite this level of criminality. > I guess that naively, I just never thought hard enough about how > much money was actually at stake (in the spamming trade) or what > that might mean in terms or the determination of spammers to win > at all costs. > > I don't know what else I can or should say at this point, other > than that it is my fervent hope that people of good will and good > intentions, people who believe in common values like civility, > honesty, decency, and privacy, will someday be able to take back > the net from the criminals who are clearly in the driver's seat at > the moment. Sadly though, I have to say that I am not hopeful that > this will occur anytime soon. Losing a few anti-spam sites is not > something that is likely to grab either the attention of, or even > the notice of John Q. Surfer. Strange as it may sound, the only > real hope that I have for the near term is that some egomaniac > miscreant with a desire for publicity will DDoS the web sites of > both the Democratic and Republican National Comittees out of ex- > istance. Preventing DDoS attacks an/or finding their perpetrators > in not likely to be a priority for either manufacturers of network- > ing gear or for large backbone companies until such an event, and > until people with the clous necessary to move things off dead-center > are impacted as I have been. > > > Regards, > rfg > > > P.S. I may still post the odd occasional personal oninion to the various > anti-spam lists and newsgroups, but I clearly am no longer in a postion > to make suggestions to anybody about anything when it comes to fighting > spam. I took my best shot, at trying to leap tall buildings in a single > bound, and all I did was to make some high scuff marks on the wall. I > thus no longer have any real standing to comment on what anybody else > may be doing in the way of anti-spam efforts, and all I can do is to > wish you well and the best of luck. > > P.P.S. I should perhaps offer a special apology to SpamHaus, to MAPS, > and to the many other such groups that will continue to try to withstand > this onslaught. I am especially sorry that I have let all of you down, > and that I won't be able to draw any fire away from you folks any more. > I wish you better luck (and more friends and bandwidth) than I had. > --- [This E-mail was scanned for viruses by Declude Virus (http://www.declude.com)] --- This E-mail came from the Declude.JunkMail mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and type "unsubscribe Declude.JunkMail". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com. --- [This E-mail was scanned for viruses by Declude Virus (http://www.declude.com)] --- This E-mail came from the Declude.JunkMail mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and type "unsubscribe Declude.JunkMail". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com.
