On Thursday 16 March 2000 Justin D. Paine wrote:
> of course.. but RBL requires that a spammer actually exploits a server
> before it is blacklisted.. for inclusion in ORBS, a server just has to
> be open to relaying.. Makes no matter if it's ever been used for spam,
> the mere fact that "it could be" is enough to get it blacklisted.
Of course, it's up to individual administrator's policy to decide to
go with one or the other, but I'd point out that ORBS has no magic
wand or sixth sense: it finds mail hosts using well known techniques
that the spammer and hacker community have been using for years. If
they find an open relay which hasn't yet been abused, then it was
probably just a matter of time before it was anyway. Could have been
a long time of course, these things are probabalistic, but the
information was there in the public domain for anyone else to see too.
Once noticed by a blacklist site, the chances are that enough problems
will be made for the admin of that site that they'll actually get off
their arse and fix their mail server. If it was left until abuse
actually occured, well there's no guarantee that they'd even notice
they were being used to relay spam. From a certain point of view (and
views do differ widely on this issue), this means that it's
contributing more to the security of the net as a whole.
John
--
you gave me something that i could touch in a world where i'd had too much
something i could feel with my broken hands full of lost ideals but soon i'm
returning to you my friend and we'll go where the rivers end in the silver sea
and i'll carry you if you carry me
--
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