This software is free at http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/fairuce -henry --- "Anne P. Mitchell, Esq." <amitchell@isipp.com> wrote:

On Mar 23, 2005, at 12:37 PM, RSK wrote:

...

On Tue, Mar 22, 2005 at 10:24:37AM -0800, Andreas Ott wrote:

...

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/22/technology/ibm_spam/

If this write-up is accurate,

It's not. From the http://www.aunty-spam.com website:

IBM Not Spamming Spammers! FairUCE is About Fair Use, Not Abuse!

Did you hear? IBM is spamming spammers! It�s all over the Internet, and tongues are a�wagging! Except, it ain�t so. IBM is not spamming spammers.

Whether you think that spamming spammers is right or wrong, IBM ain�t doing it, and shame on CNN for getting it so wrong, and making IBM look so irresponsible, and in league with the likes of Lycos� �Make Love Not Spam� DOSsing Screensaver program, and the notorious Mugu Maurauder bandwidth sucking program.

You can�t really blame the folks who read CNN�s horribly wrong piece for spreading the rumour, after all it was quite sensationalist:

�Spamming spammers? IBM to offer service to bounce unwanted e-mail back to the computers that sent them. March 22, 2005: 12:22 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - IBM unveiled a service Tuesday that sends unwanted e-mails back to the spammers who sent them.

The new IBM (Research) service, known as FairUCE, essentially uses a giant database to identify computers that are sending spam. E-mails coming from a computer on the spam database are sent directly back to the computer, not just the e-mail account, that sent them.�

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

About the only thing which the article got right is that the program is called �FairUCE". FairUCE, according to IBM�s own FairUCE website, readily available for anyone to read (cough�CNN reporters..cough), is a �spam filter that stops spam by verifying sender identity instead of filtering content".

Let�s say that again: FairUCE is a spam filter that stops spam by verifying sender identity instead of filtering content.

If FairUCE can�t verify sender identity, then it goes into challenge-response mode, sending a challenge email to the sender, to which the sender must reply, to demonstrate that it is not a spambot sending the mail in question, but a real live person.

Here is IBM�s explanation of how the FairUCE system works:

�Technically, FairUCE tries to find a relationship between the envelope sender�s domain and the IP address of the client delivering the mail, using a series of cached DNS look-ups. For the vast majority of legitimate mail, from AOL to mailing lists to vanity domains, this is a snap. If such a relationship cannot be found, FairUCE attempts to find one by sending a user-customizable challenge/response. This alone catches 80% of UCE and very rarely challenges legitimate mail.�

Now, being kind, it�s possible that the good folks at CNN mistook the sending of the challenge for �spamming the spammer"....

(Rest at

http://www.aunty-spam.com/ibm-not-spamming-spammers-fairuce-is-about-

fair-use-not-abuse/)

Anne