At 03:15 PM 12/27/2004, you wrote:
Chairman wrote:
> i don't see what the big deal is about spf?
> people much smarter than i seem to think it isn't going to help.
I've read such things, too, but what I've read seems misguided.
Many of the complaints seems to center around the fact that SPF isn't a
silver bullet. No kidding; at best, it is just a tool. There is nothing that
could be done that *ever* would really eliminate spam
except for maybe real silver bullets *sigh*
-- because spammers
will adjust to whatever rules are used; because spam is hard to define; and
so on.
What SPF seems to offer is a great reduction in forged mail. Widespread
adoption of it should reduce Joe-Jobbing (a problem that I've been having in
recent months), Phishing attacks, and Viruses (here, the problem isn't the
viruses themselves, which good filters eliminate, but rather the junk "virus
detected" messages and the virus messages that are "disinfected" by some
server -- leaving junk that isn't detected by antivirus software). Yes, that
won't do much for spam, because its easy for the spammers to publish SPF
records. But it will let us block the offending IPs a lot more easily
(because we won't be blocking forged e-mail sources - which don't help block
spam, and increases the risk of blocking good mail).
okay, i trust your judgement here :)
Some of the complaints seem to come from people that are pushing alternative
systems. Many of these seems to be designed to force small mailservers (that
is small ISPs, small businesses, and small schools -- like those of us here)
off the Internet completely, by adopting schemes that are prohibitively
expensive to administer. Certainly they are good for those who want to
control the Internet!
yeah. i know the feeling.
-dd
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