From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e5c972d04da95d51 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-04-17 10:06:21 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!torn!snoopy.risq.qc.ca!nf3.bellglobal.com!nf1.bellglobal.com!nf2.bellglobal.com!news20.bellglobal.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3E9EDB7B.2090901@cogeco.ca> From: "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: SPAM-less email (was If anybody wants to make something in Ada but References: <3E9D61C0.5070103@cogeco.ca> <3E9D8090.F86AF4EC@spam.no> <3E9D8625.4090308@cogeco.ca> <3E9D9642.2030303@cogeco.ca> <878yuae2uu.fsf@inf.enst.fr> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:51:07 -0400 NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.96.223.163 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sympatico.ca X-Trace: news20.bellglobal.com 1050598267 198.96.223.163 (Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:51:07 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:51:07 EDT Organization: Bell Sympatico Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:36241 Date: 2003-04-17T12:51:07-04:00 List-Id: Samuel Tardieu wrote: >>>>>>"Warren" == Warren W Gay VE3WWG 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