[Gllug] OSS Spam filtering, virus scanning email solutions

[Chris Bell]

On Thu 04 Jan, John G Walker wrote:
> 
> 
> On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 23:30:11 +0000 (GMT) Chris Bell
> <chrisbell at overview.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> >  Are you really unable to appreciate that the journalists may not
> > have any other option than to send mail from wherever they are
> > working? It may not be a known address, just the best under the
> > circumstances. I have not been a news reporter, but I have worked as
> > member of a team getting short notice live programmes, and I have
> > been to places in this country where we have needed to beg facilities
> > from anyone nearby to get the programmes back on time. We had
> > fly-away kit for people sent out to the other side of the world, but
> > even that could not always be relied on, depending on the terrain or
> > location.
> 
> Perfectly able to appreciate the conditions journalists may have to
> work under. But I ask again: what has this to do with me
> pointing out the use of spam blockers as an anti-spam  strategy merely
> blocks the users in question from getting the emails they want.
> 
> Or do you believe that, in some strange way, blocking the reports makes
> the journalists job easier?
> 

   I do not seem to be the only one that took the original request to be for
suggestions to deal with a less than ideal situation.
   I take it to imply that some, possibly unrecognised, sending addresses
may be associated with ISPs that have a blanket spamblock listing applied.
Anti-virus and spam filtering is already in use, but the use of blacklists
causes problems. To quote:


> Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 12:03:37 +0000
> From: John G Walker <johngwalker at tiscali.co.uk>
> Reply-To: Greater London Linux User Group <gllug at gllug.org.uk>
> Subject: Re: [Gllug] OSS Spam filtering, virus scanning email solutions
> To: Greater London Linux User Group <gllug at gllug.org.uk>
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, 03 Jan 2007 11:46:03 +0000 Matthew Thompson
> <matt.thompson at actuality.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Got a bit of a puzzle - we already have plenty of anti virus and anti 
> > spam in place on our company's email system but it seems that our use
> > of the Spamhaus SBL+XBL feed is annoying some journalists who insist
> > on using dodgy russian ISPs.
> > 
> > I've been asked to provide a method that we can use to provide thises 
> > punters with the ability to email us unhindered and I think that a 
> > standalone OSS solution is likely to be what I need.
> > 
> > But I can't find any applications that will reject emails until the
> > user confirms their identity. Anyone got any pointers - or better
> > still examples of other ways I can acheive this?
> > 
> > M at t :o)
> 
> You don't just have to use dodgy ISPs to get on a blacklist from
> Spamhaus, Spamcop or the like. These guys also blacklist people they
> don't approve of (eg wrong politics). I continuously had problems with
> them until I changed the terms and conditions of my subscribers to
> say that it was the subscriber's responsibility to ensure that emails
> sent to them would get through. In other words, if emails I sent to
> them got blocked they forfeited their subscription. The incidence of
> rejected emails suddenly fell dramatically.
> 
> I don't see this approach working for your journalists. The problem is
> one of your own making. If you let other people decide what you can or
> can't receive then IMHO you're asking for trouble (which you seem to
> have got).
> 
> Incidentally, if I receive one of those emails asking me to confirm my
> identity, I mark it as spam and trash it, since I have absolutely no
> control over what happens to my address. It could be just another form
> of phishing, for all I know,
> 
> -- 
>  All the best,
>  John
> 
> 


















-- 
Chris Bell

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