Stopping Spam

by Simson Garfinkel and Alan Schwartz

This is a book about spam -- unwanted email messages and inappropriate news articles -- and what you can do to prevent it, stop it, and even outlaw it. It's a book for people who have seen their... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 156592388X
• ISBN13: 9781565923881
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 201 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Supports our Patent Pending on blacklist against body links

The book was written in 1998. Parts of it are heavily outdated. Especially one new antispam method that arose in 2003/4. If you have a blacklist of spammer domains, and you are a sysadmin, then you can do this against incoming or outgoing email - Find the links in the email body. If there are links, then find the domains in these, and compare with the blacklist. If any are in the blacklist, then you can classify the message as spam. (And perhaps delete it.) Sounds obvious? Only in retrospect. In 1998, spam was already enough of a problem that this book was written. Has many ways to fight it. Including using a blacklist against the relays in the header. Yet nowhere in the book is the next crucial step. Applying it against body links. But starting in mid/late 2003, almost all the major ISPs and message providers (like AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail), started doing the latter. It has proved one of the simplest and most effective antispam methods. The entire antispam field converted to this by 2004. Technically, the method could have been done in 1998 or earlier. No obstacle to it. The book is key proof that the method was not obvious beforehand. A necessary criterion for patentability. I rarely rate a book with 5. Here I do. Because we can cite this in support of our US Patent Pending, "System and Method for the Classification of Electronic Communications". Filed in March 2003. One portion of it described this method. I thank the authors of the book. :)

Awesome book with real solutions

Don't let the publication date scare you off. This book is timeless in its applicability. It covers all types of spam very nicely, and is acutely aware of the potential speech-related issues content-based filtering can bring about.This book offers many options for combatting spam on the user and system levels, and makes sure to present the best way to stop spam: by teaching responsible system administration and shutting down open mail relays and public NNTP servers that allow posting. I have had to admin mail and news servers for clients in the past, and I personally receive about 30 pieces of unwanted email daily. I've been particularly interested in the Procmail-based "friendly sender database", and the book presents the solution in a clear, concise fashion.If you're tired of receiving more spam than real email, or having to really look hard for high quality, on topic postings in your newsgroups, then I strongly recommend this book.

Offers Serious Solutions to Spamming!

Stopping Spam by Alan Schwartz and Simson Garfinkel (no, not Simon & Garfunkel), provides the background history on the practice know as "spamming", insight into the potential harm that can be caused by spamming, and offers readers a textbook approach to handling this egregious violation of netiquette. They provide case studies, programming solutions, assistance in responding to spam and junk mail, and legal information that readers can arm themselves with. Readers should find quite intriguing the events that brought the problem of spamming to the forefront. They will read up on the Canter & Siegel affair, the rise of Spam King Jeff Slaton, and the expoits of "Spamford" Wallace and his Cyber Promotions, Inc. outfit. The Cyber Promotions timeline at the back of the book recounts the major legal events brought on by the efforts of this one company to legitimatize the practice of spamming. These are all fascinating accounts that no opposer of spam should miss out on! Readers will learn how major online services like AOL and CompuServe have handled incidents of spam. AOL for instance, published their top ten spammers list which included weight reduction gimmicks, marketing companies, and not too surprisingly, publishers of pornography. Elaborate blocking methods were put into place and court challenges filed to prevent further unauthorized targeting of these and other services. The authors provide detailed analysis of e-mail messages to help readers determine for themselves the origin and/or nature of electronic correspondence sent to them. This analysis reveals that some spammers will take elaborate and very unethical measures to send spam and shield their identities. The authors demonstrate how easily anyone can forge e-mail. This book offers plenty of resources that readers can access to become further educated on the matter of spamming. The authors point out that members of the online community have a number of legitimate ways to deal with it. This book is a good resource guide that anyone concerned about spamming should obtain. It's good reading!

Excellent Book

While books tend to suffer in quality as compared to on-line resources, this one is an exception to that rule. It covers spam from the very origins of it and why it is bad, for the benefit of newbies, to more advanced things like how to filter spam and track down the source of a spam and complain about it to the right people. Finally, it contains information for administrators and ISPs on how to protect their systems from spams and prevent their users from spamming.This book is definitely worth buying!

Something every internet use should read.

Every internet user should be required to read at the least the first chapter of this book. It eloquently explains why spam is a serious problem and not just an annoyance. The technical information could have been more in depth, but I feel it is sufficient to get the beginning spam fighter started with online resources.