Re: I am getting hammered by the MS Security Patch Spam.

From: Ed Murphy (emurphy42_at_socal.rr.com)
Date: 09/21/03 

Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 21:59:57 GMT

On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 17:28:43 +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:

> I don't understand why ISPs --
> or someone higher up the chain --
> can't filter out this rubbish themselves.
> It hardly requires a degree in nuclear science to recognise it,
> and sending out the stuff
> must be multiplying their load by a large factor.

My ISP replaces the viral payloads with a short explanatory text file,
though it took them a day or two to add Swen to the filter. (Perhaps
their filters are updated by an automated daily process.) So I still
get the rubbish, but at least it's cut down to about 10% of its original
size. (So I'm still really glad that fetchmail and procmail are
automatically discarding most of it.)

I suppose they're worried that some virus will get the bright idea of
attaching itself to otherwise-legit messages. Personally, I'm willing
to risk losing such messages.

I do wish that ISPs would offer the following *options*:

* List of disallowed extensions (with a reasonable default set);
  any attachment with one of these extensions is *assumed* to be
  a virus, without bothering to look at its actual content

* Whether to trash the entire message, trash the attachment, or
  store the attachment on a web server (so the user can retrieve
  it if it's legit; older stuff is purged from storage as needed)

(Anyone wanting to send a legit Windows executable can zip it first,
which is also kinder and gentler on bandwidth.)

In fact, AOL is using spam filtering as a selling point, although
(a) I don't know whether it's server- or client-side
(b) I don't know whether they attempt to cover viruses
(c) I can't even find a web page on which AOL *clearly* explains
      exactly what they offer. (Typical. AOL probably figures
      most of their users are too stupid to understand it anyway.)

Relevant Pages

  • Re: SpamStorm...
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  • Re: Source for Caps
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  • Re: OT/ Question About Killfiles
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  • Re: OT/ Question About Killfiles
    ... it's rubbish. ... Any newsreader that can't filter out excessively ... crossposted (posted to> N newsgroups) messages isn't worth bothering ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • Re: Email question for Sheldon
    ... The issue is that this guy gets tons of big attachments, ... mailbox limit is 2GB, and he's a total slob with regard ... AOL will be a temporary fix until the problem is solved. ... and actually read the spam filter log. ...
    (rec.food.cooking)