[clug] [AUSCERT ALERT - Email worm W32.Beagle.A/Win32.Bagle.A]

[Michael Carden]

The banter on this issue does raise some interesting questions.

What is the current Best Practice method of dealing with the broad issue of 
SPAM?

There are clearly differing approaches depending on where you sit in the spam 
chain. ISPs and those who control mail servers have responsibilities for what 
goes on under systems they can influence.

The 'innocent' users of those servers can't (usually) control the server's 
behaviour, but they may take advantage of software implemented on those 
servers. For example, my (pre-TransAct... therefore dial up) ISP has 
SpamAssassin {www.spamassassin.org} on its mail servers. This tags any 
suspected spam with a *****SPAM***** addendum to the subject line. It's 
trivial to filter these messages to /mail/blackhole. My experience with the 
accuracy of SpamAssassin has been very positive with perhaps one misdiagnosis 
a month, but then again I only receive about a meg of email a day...

Few people reading this will be using mail readers that automatically render 
html emails or attempt to execute unwelcome attachments, but the whole 
education issue in this area continues to be something that has to concern us 
all.

So what works well for you? I'm not asking 'What great new technique did you 
read about in an obscure journal from the University of Discordia,' but what 
do you use that takes the sting out of spam?

Cheers,
MC


-- 
http://michaelcarden.net