Bots was Re: [Asrg] Email service assumptions and making system-wide changes

["Tom Petch" <nwnetworks at dial.pipex.com>]

You identify bots as the principal current source of spam and you may be right -
you are not the first to posit this on this list.  I would, however, like to see
some evidence.  What I do see is a lack of evidence in the form of articles
written on technology in serious newspapers, particularly those advising on the
use of technology.  The concept of bots does not figure, so either these
professional journalists are ignorant or our view is skewed or ...

By comparison, suggestions that most spam came from a small number of people or
that there was an increase in spam from former communist states has been backed
up by statistics, by reference to web sites etc.

I don't say you are wrong - just that I wonder why others do not see it that
way - and I do see it as important to identify the nature of spam in order to
propose a realistic solution.

Tom Petch

----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry Shein" <bzs at world.std.com>
To: <dcrocker at bbiw.net>
Cc: <asrg at ietf.org>
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Asrg] Email service assumptions and making system-wide changes


>
> I am surprised that after all these years the problem of spam is still
> so fundamentally misunderstood.
>
> The problem at this point are viral-infected zombie bot armies.
>
> These provide massive e-mail distribution power and most importantly
> anonymity and mobility allowing evasion.
>
> I think we look at the msgs in our boxes and focus on the content and
> imagine ourselves sending such a msg to someone else which leads to a
> vastly oversimplified view of the situation.
>
> Everyone gets dozens to hundreds of these spams per day (perhaps some
> blocked but they're still being sent.) Services which handle mail
> delivery get gazillions of these msgs per day, mostly addressed to
> non-existant mailboxes or similar.
>
> These dirtbags can't do this with legally operated (by them)
> facilities.
>
> Their economics don't warrant it.
>
> Not even close.
>
> So they deploy literally hundreds of thousands, in total often over a
> million, virus-infected zombie bots for which they're not paying a
> nickel for (or at least nothing in proportion to their rational market
> worth, sure, even bankrobbers have to buy gasoline.)
>
> And that's it.
>
> THAT'S IT.
>
> Stop or significantly slow that and they're defunct, they can't hit us
> with billions of msgs per day for the paltry sums they're earning.
>
> And even if they could afford it they'd lose that evasive mobility and
> they'd be shut down or at least blocked at a low-level so quickly
> they'd go find another profession like stealing people's pets for lab
> research or whatever.
>
> How to fix what I describe is a further discussion.
>
> But for the love all that is good and right let's try to agree on what
> the problem is.
>
> It ain't some miscreant spinning an SMTP server on his laptop much
> like any of us sending email only more fervently.
>
> It's massive, organized criminal infection and exploitation of vast
> zombie bot armies numbering in the hundreds of thousands of infected
> PCs.
>
> Get rid of that and the amount of "spam" you receive wouldn't be worth
> chatting about.
>
> You're welcome.
>
> --
>         -Barry Shein
>
> The World              | bzs at TheWorld.com           | http://www.TheWorld.com
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