Re: SPAM-less email (was If anybody wants to make something in Ada but

["Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@cogeco.ca>]

Samuel Tardieu wrote:
>>>>>>"Warren" == Warren W Gay VE3WWG <ve3wwg@cogeco.ca> writes:
> 
> Warren> Yes of course. But that is why you need a key that is only
> Warren> usable by a specific sender.
> 
> A lot of solutions exist, none of them is perfect yet. For example, I
> protect myself with SpamAssassin (http://www.spamassassin.org) and WLE
> (http://www.rfc1149.net/wle). The only spams I have received in months
> were not-so-suspect mails coming through mailing-lists I subscribe to.
> And only a few people had to do an extra manipulation to send me email.
> 
>   Sam

A key based system can be made to work nearly 100%. If people give
away secrets (just like giving away system passwords), then you
can't do much about that. However, it can be easily corrected, if
you then change the cert.

Any "filter" based solution is going to be a continually losing
battle. It is not a "solution".

Sure you can filter today against:

    viagara
    v.i.a.g.a.r.a
    v/i/*a/g/a-ra

But then next month you'll be adding:

    V-aye a graw

and so on. Then your filters become so strong, that someone sends me
an email about "Meet you in Niagara", and your filter will eliminate
that message on me.

This is not a final solution!

PGP and other encryption technology can make it nearly impossible
for people to forge an authentication. How many spammers will
spend time on a supercomputer cracking a successful cert to
spam little ol' me? They might for a Microsoft email address,
but then MS can afford to deal with the spam ;-)

But increased levels of encryption can make it even more difficult,
when necessary (at least until the desktop quantum computer
arrives). ;-)  Maybe it can be a "parameter" of the process.

We need to think about the _larger_ picture here. Too many people
are stuck in the "let's filter" thinking, which is only a half
measure. I'd like to challenge everyone to look to at a solicited
email only solution. This is the _only_ way to eliminate unwanted
mail (proof witheld ;-)

This is doable. PGP has been providing safe email communication
for quite some time. We just need to apply the same technology
to restrict email to "solicited only email". Use encrypted
attachments (for example) to authenticate the sender and
receiver relationship.

I do agree that filtering is probably the only solution to
_unsolicited_ mail. But if everyone starts to use "solicited
only email" to avoid spam, and only very occaisionally checking
the unsolicited email box, maybe the spammers will give up?

Maybe that is thinking just a little optimistic ;-)

-- 
Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg