Time to check the rate limits on your mail servers

Thu Feb 3 22:46:03 UTC 2005

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog at merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog at merit.edu]On Behalf Of
> J.D. Falk
> Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 4:35 PM
> To: nanog at merit.edu
> Subject: Re: Time to check the rate limits on your mail servers
> 
> 
> 
> On 02/03/05, "Miller, Mark" <mark.miller at qwest.com> wrote: 
> 
> >   How come it is always about controlling the symptoms and not the
> > illness?  The vast majority of these
> > "spam drones" are compromised WINDOWS machines.  If the 
> operating system
> > and dominant email applications so easily allows the users' 
> machines to
> > be taken over by a third party, then there is something 
> wrong with the
> > operating system and the mail applications.  It occurs to 
> me that the
> > solution is not to limit the range of destruction, but to defuse the
> > bomb.  Perhaps the focus for a solution should move up the model to
> > layer 7.
> 
> 	Upgrading and/or replacing the OS for every Windows user on the
> 	planet is an educational issue.  Keeping the network viable
> 	while you figure out how to do that is an operational issue.

..or a cost issue. Most of these users are people who have
decided not to spend the $40 to defend their machine at home. 

-M< 