Re: [IMail Forum] Blaming the RBL instead of the ISP

[Doug White]

IMHO situations such as those occurring at the Kennedy Space Center mail servers, is simple evidence of the arrogance of system Administrators in believing they "own" the mail boxes of those receiving the spew of unwanted email messages, known as spam.   When any admin neglects to respond to complaints of system compromises or spamming, I firmly believe they should have their internet privileges suspended until they wake up and apply best practices to their own systems.   Another insecure system that is relaying a constant spew of spam is the mail servers at va.gov.  The consequence is that they, too, are now appearing on the DNSBLs and other blacklists. These "gummit" admins are not in some ivory tower, and must bear a responsibility to be good "netizens" or suffer the consequences.  All of them have failed or refused to respond to not just a few, but thousands of complaints about their systems.   The ability of private enterprise to block incoming mail from abusive systems cannot be considered a denial of service, but legitimate protection of the recipient system of resources being stolen by the abusers. ====================================== Our Anti-spam solution works!! http://www.clickdoug.com/mailfilter.cfm For hosting solutions http://www.clickdoug.com http://www.forta.com/cf/isp/isp.cfm?isp_id=1069 ======================================     ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Riddle To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2004 12:48 AM Subject: [IMail Forum] Blaming the RBL instead of the ISP In case you guys didn't see this rant from the W2Knews this is horrible. Instead of blaming the guys running RBL's how about blaming RoadRunner for using a fire and forget concept of spam control without appearing to actually monitor what their filters are trapping or even blaming Kennedy Space Center for running servers that are probably open to abuse by a spammer. No one is making RR (or any of us) use those RBL's so it is up to RR (and us) to monitor and adjust our filters as needed as well as do what we can to minimize the potential for abuse by spammers.  It is stupid to be talking about suing the RBL's ----------- RBL's Shutting Down Kennedy Space Center Spam Blockers Continue To Cause DOS At Kennedy Space Center. Three times this year all of the e-mail from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) was blocked by our county's largest broadband ISP (RoadRunner). They have done so because of a large quantity of mail coming from a single user or because one or more of the following third party spam blocking lists has falsely labeled KSC's main mail server as a source of spam. The blockers the ISP uses are MAPS Realtime Blackhole List, MAPS Relay Spam Stopper, MAPS Dialup User List, MAPS Open Proxy Stopper List and the Spamhaus Block List. The administrators are FURIOUS at these self-appointed guardians of the Internet and claim these RBLs have caused more aggravation and more Denial-Of-Service than spam ever has. Now, they have caused a denial of service at a major government installation. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people worldwide that depend on KSC e-mail system for everything from education to scientific research to national security. How many other ISP's are blocking KSC? Their email admins are tired having to put up with a "cure" that is far worse than the disease, and they are not the only ones. When will these RBLs be sued and shut down?