From: Fred Showker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I would suggest that if you build a FFB (Filter that Fights Back) that you take great pains to have the filter check to see if the message it is operating on was a "bounce" message or a first-pass spam. The reason for this is that by triggering cascades of bounce messages (a joe-job), a spammer could easily create a DoS attack against a website by subverting the actions of any FFB filter that might recieve the message. -Bill Yerazunis Greetings Benjamin Han Are you associated in any way with a college or university? I read the blurb on your product JunkMatcher while preparing my Monday column "InfoManager" for the User Group Network. (http://www.user-groups.net/info/index.html) Since you've released "JunkMatcher" as "freeware" > JunkMatcher 1.5.9 (free) now adds SpamBayes, a powerful > Bayesian spam filter, to its comprehensive arsenal of > spam-fighting tools... it occurred to me you might just be the programmer I've been looking for. You obviously have a good handle on programming with regards to spam -- and the fact it's "free" tells me you're a community-minded person. I am interested in providing a substantial grant for the development of an FFB providing it is through a school or university. Let me know. Fred Showker -------------- Background: An "FFB" is a "Filter that Fights Back" See: http://www.60-Seconds.com/articles/163.html and: http://www.paulgraham.com/ffb.html I've been an avid spam fighter and supporter of anti-spam activism since before the SpamCop opened his doors. See: http://www.user-groups.net/safenet/UCE/index.html Many web sites use my "free" anti-spam logos and icons posted to the web in the mid-1990s. (see: http://www.Anti-SpamTools.com/) So, I approached Paul to refine his "FFB" and sell it to me to release into the public domain as FREEware -- for quick and wide deployment in the computer community. A wide-spread deployment of such a filter would reap huge benefits for the anti-spam effort. However, he declined $50,000 fearing retribution. For obvious reasons, this filter would have to be very carefully constructed and tested; with sufficient safeguards built in to prevent targeting non-spamming entities. After consulting attorneys and legislators on the matter I drafted a feasibility study to prove that such a filter would be perfectly legal and would actually prevent retribution or litigation from any ISP who became thwarted in their spamming activities. The bottom line is: > "If a sufficiently large number of computer users initiate a > series of requests to the the same IP address at the same time, > no single user could be identified or singled out for the > purpose of litigation for any resulting denial of service. > Furthermore, the software filter itself could not be held > responsible since any single source is incapable of producing > requests in sufficient quantity to evoke a DOS." It's a 'community' problem, so the 'community' is probably the only 'best' way to combat it. So, I continue my quest for a programmer who is not necessarily "profit" motivated -- with enough grit to stand up for what is right. _______________________________________________ [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes Check the FAQ before asking: http://spambayes.sf.net/faq.html _______________________________________________ [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes Check the FAQ before asking: http://spambayes.sf.net/faq.html
