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Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo unveil antispam guidelines

malebolgia   on 22 June 2004 - 22:54 · 11 comments & 2577 views

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Three of the industries most respected e-mail providers and one of the most popular ISP stepped up today. That is to say that Yahoo, Microsoft, America Online. and EarthLink have released recommendations for how to stop SPAM. These recommendations are geared towards ISPs, E-mail providers, governments, and corporations.

An industry organization representing heavyweight e-mail providers Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., America Online Inc. and EarthLink Inc. released recommendations for ending unsolicited commercial ("spam") e-mail, according to a statement by the group. The Anti-Spam Technical Alliance's (ASTA) Statement of Intent, released Tuesday, includes a list of suggestions and "best practice" recommendations for Internet service providers (ISPs), e-mail service providers, governments, corporations and bulk e-mail senders.

Among other things, ASTA recommended that ISPs shut down so-called "open relays," or e-mail servers that allow parties that do not own the mail server to relay mail through them without needing to log in first. The group also suggested that ISPs crack down on virus and worm-infected computers on their network and closely monitor features that let people automatically register for ISP accounts.

If implemented, and with the backing of ASTA member companies, the recommendations could greatly reduce the amount of spam e-mail, the group said. The recommendations are the product of more than a year of collaboration between representatives of the member companies and focus, mainly, on ISPs, whose networks are often used to distribute spam.

News source: InfoWorld


We've now had this story twice :)

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 11 additional comments
#1 Sushubh on 22 Jun 2004 - 23:08
they ignored google. gmail still in beta
(1 reply) #2 WishX on 23 Jun 2004 - 01:44
What about independent hosting companies?
#2.1 chacho on 23 Jun 2004 - 16:26
what about them?
(3 replies) #3 Andareed on 23 Jun 2004 - 02:46
Open realys are one of the biggest issues in spam. It will take months (maybe years) for isp's to comply though. But after this time, a good blacklist can be established. But sadly this won't be an instant solution
#3.1 Sushubh on 23 Jun 2004 - 03:52
yup 99% of the mails spam assasin catches are relayed...
#3.2 EugeneE3RD on 23 Jun 2004 - 10:09
Yeah, but the problem is that, IMO, you will have ISP's which refuse to fix their open relay servers cause they support spammers. The ISP's who support spammers will refuse to fix the open relays.
#3.3 eris on 23 Jun 2004 - 10:16
Maybe some laws would help which make knowingly hosting spam and using spam to advertise illegal? I think right now is still a good point to pass such laws because all the big infrastructure is in the hands of the "western world".
(1 reply) #4 eris on 23 Jun 2004 - 09:45
Write a letter to your politician demanding a ban on spam.
#4.1 j.reed on 23 Jun 2004 - 16:14
Can the spam!
(1 reply) #5 djtaylor on 23 Jun 2004 - 10:38
And they've only just come up with this as a solution? They should have done this years ago, particularly the closing of 'open relays'. Can't believe they've only just realised.
#5.1 STV on 23 Jun 2004 - 11:01
i think that this is coming out now because it has recently become a serious problem, even though spammers have been around for years.

STV

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