R
Roedy Green
I had a bit of a fright the other day. I thought for a while I was
under a email denial of service attack. I wondered if I would ever be
able to post even a munged public email address ever again.
Surely there are such people.
In like manner, I can see how spammers with political, religious,
pornographic, enfant terrible, or commercial interests will gradually
make the newsgroups and standard email totally unusable. As my Dad you
used say all the time, "watch the derivative".
We can't wait until that happens before taking action.
I see a multi-pronged approach will be necessary:
1. legal means. However but spammers will be able to hide anywhere on
earth. Surely some third world country will harbour them just as the
Cayman Islands harbours crooked companies. With the net, they can set
up shop in SomethingIstan and have effective storefronts in every
country.
2. boycotts. We must educate people to ensure spammers DON'T get
whatever it is they want from spamming.
3. technology. I see a new email delivery system evolving to
completely replace POP3/SMTP. It will have a number of features.
a. automatic encryption, compression, digital signing.
b. full use of the 8-bit channels.
c. a sender pays receiver system so any spam that does leak through
still costs the spammer.
d. the best anti-spam thinking that is built in, suitable for
technopeasants.
e. suitable for exchanging large files, and common files.
f. ways to protect against denial of service attacks.
g. designed from the ground up for technopeasants. Everything is
automatic.
The original email system was cooked up overnight as a demo. The
author surely never dreamed his system would be used almost unmodified
for planetary email scheme. It needs a major overhaul.
under a email denial of service attack. I wondered if I would ever be
able to post even a munged public email address ever again.
Surely there are such people.
In like manner, I can see how spammers with political, religious,
pornographic, enfant terrible, or commercial interests will gradually
make the newsgroups and standard email totally unusable. As my Dad you
used say all the time, "watch the derivative".
We can't wait until that happens before taking action.
I see a multi-pronged approach will be necessary:
1. legal means. However but spammers will be able to hide anywhere on
earth. Surely some third world country will harbour them just as the
Cayman Islands harbours crooked companies. With the net, they can set
up shop in SomethingIstan and have effective storefronts in every
country.
2. boycotts. We must educate people to ensure spammers DON'T get
whatever it is they want from spamming.
3. technology. I see a new email delivery system evolving to
completely replace POP3/SMTP. It will have a number of features.
a. automatic encryption, compression, digital signing.
b. full use of the 8-bit channels.
c. a sender pays receiver system so any spam that does leak through
still costs the spammer.
d. the best anti-spam thinking that is built in, suitable for
technopeasants.
e. suitable for exchanging large files, and common files.
f. ways to protect against denial of service attacks.
g. designed from the ground up for technopeasants. Everything is
automatic.
The original email system was cooked up overnight as a demo. The
author surely never dreamed his system would be used almost unmodified
for planetary email scheme. It needs a major overhaul.