[LINK] RFI: Help re SPAM Privacy Laws

[Andy Farkas]

On Mon, 17 Feb 2003, Roger Clarke wrote:

> Because spam is rampant, ISPs have sought ways of protecting
> themselves and their clients.  This involves blocking known sources
> of spam.  This of course also involves considerable 'collateral
> damage'.  ORB has been one such collaboration.  It focusses on one
> particular problem:  ISPs that have a particular kind of security
> weakness which enables bulk spam to be sent through them.  ORB has
> copped a fair amount of flak (because of the collateral damage), and
> I think it's now operating from http://ordb.org/.  But there are
> several other services of consequence.
>

I just wanted to clarify that ORB[SZ] is not ORDB. ORBS no longer exists
and IIRC were the ones that "copped a fair amount of flak". ORBZ also does
not exist anymore, but has morphed into DSBL. See <http://www.orbz.org/>.

On the other hand, the ORDB service (Open Relay Database) does a good job
of spam prevention by tracking open relay mail servers, all of which are
user submitted. A server is only listed after testing if it is indeed an
open relay. See <http://www.ordb.org/about/>.

--

 :{ andyf@speednet.com.au

        Andy Farkas
    System Administrator
   Speednet Communications
 http://www.speednet.com.au/