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ISPA recommendations on combating spam
Wednesday 04 April 2007 17:08:07 by John Hunt
ISPA has released a best current practice (BCP) document as a recommendation to ISPA members on how to help combat spam. It comes as part of a series of documents aimed at advising members on what it believes is the best way to deal with various issues.
ISPA points out that a large portion of the problem is caused by zombie PCs which help distribute over 80% of spam, and that Service Providers should help educate their customers into the best way to protect their PCs from being involved in this. Suggested measures include using firewalls and anti-virus software, as well as promotion of products they offer to help reduce spam. We at thinkbroadband.com recommend that everyone runs anti-virus and firewall software to ensure they are well protected. Most operating systems come with a built in firewall, and free anti-virus solutions (such as AVG free or Avast) are readily available.
Other future documents are expected to advise members on how to approach issues such as copyright infringement, peer-to-peer file sharing, and contact with law enforcement.
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Comments
I wonder how their other article 'BCP on Blocking and filtering of Internet Traffic' applies to ISPs that have traffic shaping equipment.
It's a bit woolly in places but from my quick scan it doesn't seem to sit well. It also makes no mention that a FUP should have clear guidelines for end users and a topic of much interest and debate from all quarters.
Of course the old fashion way to avoid spam works best (or it has for me) give everyone you dont know some throw away webmail address and only close friends and relatives your real ISP email.
I don't about you but some of my friends and relatives are the worst culprits of forwarding on my email address to other people by mistake and usually fairly innocently because they don't know the consequence of either doing a cc/bcc or because they forward my email to a group of people.
LOL those type of people i dont consider friends ;)
I dont get spam.
I set my outlook junk filter to high and delete all suspected spam rather than to junk folder.
I'm sure you don't get a lot of legitimate email either, biggerfish. Unfortunately, not an option for many of us.
The actual BCP at www.ispa.org.uk/home/page_364.html says very little really, the press release is more useful than the thing it is announcing !
It is one thing recommending people run anti-virus software, but how many actually have it scan their PC on a routine basis - most doesn't scan through not being on at the allocated hour or not being set to scan based on a schedule.
Further to rsharma's first comment, I notice that they do not mention RFC4084 in their BCP for filtering.
To be honest I think some ISP's have a long way to go to help users. ISP's like BT offer free NAV which is a good start for users.
To catch the infected users ISP's could install a PC that scanners it users PC Ports looking for zombie connectivity (similar action that ISP use for port 25 open relays) and if anything is found then an email should be sent to the user informing them of their possible infection. Won't cost much to implement and run but would help stop the zombies.