IBM to offer service to bounce unwanted e-mail back to the

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1

This software is free at
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/fairuce

-henry

--- "Anne P. Mitchell, Esq." <amitchell@isipp.com>
wrote:

>>
IBM set to use spam to attack spammers - Mar. 22, 2005
>
> If this write-up is accurate,

It's not. From the http://www.aunty-spam.com
website:

IBM Not Spamming Spammers! FairUCE is About Fair
Use, Not Abuse!

Did you hear? IBM is spamming spammers! It�s all
over the Internet, and
tongues are a�wagging! Except, it ain�t so. IBM is
not spamming
spammers.

  Whether you think that spamming spammers is right
or wrong, IBM ain�t
doing it, and shame on CNN for getting it so wrong,
and making IBM look
so irresponsible, and in league with the likes of
Lycos� �Make Love Not
Spam� DOSsing Screensaver program, and the notorious
Mugu Maurauder
bandwidth sucking program.

You can�t really blame the folks who read CNN�s
horribly wrong piece
for spreading the rumour, after all it was quite
sensationalist:

�Spamming spammers?
IBM to offer service to bounce unwanted e-mail back
to the computers
that sent them.
  March 22, 2005: 12:22 PM EST

  NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - IBM unveiled a service
Tuesday that sends
unwanted e-mails back to the spammers who sent them.

The new IBM (Research) service, known as FairUCE,
essentially uses a
giant database to identify computers that are
sending spam. E-mails
coming from a computer on the spam database are sent
directly back to
the computer, not just the e-mail account, that sent
them.�

  Wrong, wrong, wrong.

About the only thing which the article got right is
that the program is
called �FairUCE". FairUCE, according to IBM�s own
FairUCE website,
readily available for anyone to read (cough�CNN
reporters..cough), is a
�spam filter that stops spam by verifying sender
identity instead of
filtering content".

Let�s say that again: FairUCE is a spam filter that
stops spam by
verifying sender identity instead of filtering
content.

If FairUCE can�t verify sender identity, then it
goes into
challenge-response mode, sending a challenge email
to the sender, to
which the sender must reply, to demonstrate that it
is not a spambot
sending the mail in question, but a real live
person.

Here is IBM�s explanation of how the FairUCE system
works:

�Technically, FairUCE tries to find a relationship
between the envelope
sender�s domain and the IP address of the client
delivering the mail,
using a series of cached DNS look-ups. For the vast
majority of
legitimate mail, from AOL to mailing lists to vanity
domains, this is a
snap. If such a relationship cannot be found,
FairUCE attempts to find
one by sending a user-customizable
challenge/response. This alone
catches 80% of UCE and very rarely challenges
legitimate mail.�

  Now, being kind, it�s possible that the good folks
at CNN mistook the
sending of the challenge for �spamming the
spammer"....

(Rest at

http://www.aunty-spam.com/ibm-not-spamming-spammers-fairuce-is-about-