<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8">
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.16.1">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<BR>
On Thu, 2008-05-01 at 12:32 -0400, George (Skip) VerDuin wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
<PRE>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Very pertinent topic Collin.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 15:37 -0400, Collin wrote:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> This is sort of off topic but sort of on topic...</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">I'm sorry -- I see nothing off topic in your post, and I see many good</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">thoughts in the thread posted prior to mine.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> I'm getting hundreds upon hundreds of bounce messages from all over the </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> world today. Someone used our email domain as the sender address for not </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> so nice emails (they didn't use our server they just claim to be us). >>SNIP<<</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">It seems your experience is shared by many of us and our interests are</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">to protect ourselves from such abuse in the absence of (or the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">ineptitude of) protection from others. The issue you put before us is</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">tantamount to identity theft, a hard to enforce felony level statute.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">It also seems to be a two pronged question of:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">a) Discovery</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">b) Propagation</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">A) Discovery of email address:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">In order for our information to be used by others, it must be ferreted</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">out by people with either good or bad intentions. Whatever we do to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">protect ourselves from mal-use, it must not disadvantage good-use.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">One practice is to obfuscate email addresses on web sites. For example:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="mailto:grlug@grlug.org">grlug@grlug.org</A> becomes "grlug at grlug dot org", now simple robots pass</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">over such text and come away empty handed. I have the desire to learn</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">more tactics from GRLUG that allow me to put myself out there on the web</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">with some safety.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">B) Propagation of mal intent:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">In order for us to blunt the effects of mis-use of our information, we</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">might need to be proactive at shutting down distribution. Our present</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">tools include firewalls and spam filters. I find it good practice to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">shut down abuse, but bad practice to stop at protection and not be</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">proactive at prevention because inaction is a self defeating</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">proposition.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">One filter put forward is grey-listing and SPF I find interesting. Like</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">all solutions, isn't there a price? For example, to shut down</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">"undeliverable" now disadvantages legitimate users who mis-spell an</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">address on valid mail from an organization? Curious minds...? </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">C) What to do later today and tomorrow:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">I guess LWN needs to go into my regular reading? While I can repent, I</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">also struggle to find the time for information overload... But perhaps</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">there is opportunity in this: consultant on the topic, service provider</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">upstream of the reader, IPv6, SMTP "from" validated against IP address,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">email delivery "stamp" with associated cost, giving no quarter at any</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">ISP with lax attitude (and that might include blacklisting mail from his</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">domain)...</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">I find the comments of practiced experts who chide poorly done firewalls</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">amusing but not very instructional. My desire is to feel safe so I can</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">sleep soundly, and feel participative so tomorrow might be a better day</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">than today. Casey -- for GRLUG meeting would you consider a round table</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">on this subject? I'd love to take notes and post them on wiki.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Warmest regards from here,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">George</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">_______________________________________________</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">grlug mailing list</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="mailto:grlug@grlug.org">grlug@grlug.org</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="http://shinobu.grlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/grlug">http://shinobu.grlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/grlug</A></FONT>
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR>
Chiding and amusing? What planet are you from? I was the one who mentioned poor firewall rules as a possible point to look at. I didn't chide anyone. It was a pointer to help because that's something I actually had happen to me in my travels. Get over yourself.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</BODY>
</HTML>