Re: Why Spam is a problem

[Fred Baker <fred at cisco.com>]

At 10:52 AM 8/16/2002 -0400, Brian Bisaillon wrote:
> I don't see how filtering messages helps with bandwidth issues associated 
> with spam. You still have to receive spam before you can filter it out and 
> this is what uses up bandwidth. Spam needs to be stopped at the source 
> before it even enters a receiving network.

I'll buy that.

>  That source is the service provider

I don't follow that. The source is the computer that ran the SMTP process 
from which the message started. If that is run by a service provider, then 
so be it, but I should think that most mail is originated by an edge 
network (Cisco, in my case), not a service provider.

The Hello Banner proposal is interesting, in that you can stop it at some 
previous hop - the spam I get through ISI could, for example, be stopped at 
ISI. But it will always be the computer that receives my SMTP Hello Banner, 
which will only be the originator in cases where the originator sends the 
message directly to me. That is true for some spam, but by no means all.

> The Internet is an open and interoperable medium. You can't change the 
> design because it's too late.

I disagree. Suppose, for example, that we designed a new mail protocol 
(call it X.399 if you like) and convinced everyone to implement it on their 
systems. If it worked at least as well as SMTP and additionally kept spam 
out, I'll bet it would be a short time before the only folks using SMTP 
were the spammers.