From: bill@wkidston.freeserve.co.uk
Date: Wed Aug 27 2003 - 14:52:15 MDT
On Wed Aug 27, 2003 12:45 Robert J Bradbury warned:
>
> This is just warning to list members that the SPAM
> situation is going to get worse before it gets better.
>
> Apparently a distributed denial of service attack has
> taken out one of the major source points for lists
> of systems distributing undesirable emails [1].
>
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/communications/story/0,2000048620,20277794,00.htm
ZDNet confirms:
"Osirusoft, one of the largest anti-spam black-list, has been shut down
by its operator following a barrage of massive Distributed Denial of
Service (DoS) attacks that have crippled the service."
But there are many people who don't like 'spam blacklists' and never use
them. I agree with the opinion that says they are more trouble than they
are worth. They are notorious for blacklisting the wrong people. Most
people will have had incidents of email lists going missing because they
were wrongly blacklisted.
Bayesian logic and whitelists are much better methods for controlling
spam. Getting an industry-wide whitelist, though, is probably
impossible. But each user can have their own whitelist to junk all the
spam that arrives in their mailbox.
I am not so worried about the spam nuisance as I am about the suspicion
that organised crime is behind these virus attacks. See:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39115886,00.htm
Quote:
"An antivirus expert claims Sobig is the work not of 'script kiddies',
but of sophisticated criminals who want to take control of PCs
"Sobig smashed all the records in terms of pure numbers, but that's not
nearly the whole story," said Simpson. "This is the sixth in a series of
controlled experiments. This isn't about some kiddy writing viruses in
his bedroom -- this is really a very sophisticated example of organised
crime."
Simpson explained that the purpose of getting Sobig onto the computer is
not to cause damage or purely to drive wide and rapid spread, but to
gain control of machine, by downloading a Trojan and gain access to
information such as bank details for the purpose of fraud. Such tactics
effectively hand control of the machine over to the virus writer.
It will also enable unscrupulous marketers to disguise the source of
spam by abusing victim's computers and identities.
End quote
This means that users have to get as serious about protecting their PC
as they are about protecting their car and their house.
Locks, anti-theft systems, alarms, gates, scanners, the whole lot has to
be installed and kept up-to-date to keep the thieves out.
Not a very pleasant prospect, really. :(
BillK
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