29
Fri, Nov
0 New Articles

Spam: Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

Commentary
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

Spam--along with the effort to control and eliminate it--has replaced Internet viruses as the latest "fear and loathing" topic in the media. So virulent is this topic that efforts are being pushed to make the creation and the distribution of spam a criminal offence, with punishment by jail time.

Yet new legislation and new efforts by ISPs will have little effect on the quantity of spam that you receive. And the public uproar is drowning out more realistic approaches to solve the technical issue of unsolicited commercial email.

Recent Anti-Spam Legislation

Senators Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have introduced the Can-Spam Act of 2003, making the creation and distribution of spam a criminal act with punishments of fines and imprisonment for the offenders.

Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is proposing similar legislation that would also establish a national no-spam registry, modeled after do-not-call list legislation enacted this year that enables people to avoid getting calls from telemarketers.

Similar legislation has been proposed in the Colorado and Missouri state legislatures to create a central database of residents who don't want to receive unsolicited email. In the Colorado Junk-E-Mail proposal, the law requires companies to pay an annual fee of up to $500 to access the registry. It also would award consumers $10 plus attorney's fees for each unwanted message they receive, assuming they are willing to take the spammer to court.

These efforts are mostly ill-advised and miss the key technical issue that makes spam so difficult to control: Nobody knows who the spammers are, nobody can trace their physical whereabouts, and most legally defined spam is the calling card of virtual scam artists who are trying to take your money.

The problem with spam is not that it is legal abuse, but that it is illegal abuse of a technically crude and fragile communication network that no one can fix.

Industry Responses by Concerned Benefactors

Last week, in response to these calls for punitive measures, Microsoft, America Online, and Yahoo!--the largest sources of public email accounts--vowed to work together to establish ways to filter spam from their services while establishing industrywide technical standards that would make the promulgation of spam more difficult. These standards--something they called "best practices"--will be designed to help IP administrators better screen communications while closing loopholes in the technology of SMTP message serving.

At the same time, however, many Internet administrators whose clients have complained about spam have launched their own vigilante efforts to blanket black-list entire Internet domains--along with all the IP addresses assigned to those domains--that have been identified as sources of spam. This effort is like a rolling blackout for email users, indiscriminately cutting off channels of messages from anyone within the affected domain areas. It is like carpet bombing neighborhoods of unwitting email users for the infractions of recalcitrant terrorists: It stops the spam momentarily, but it destroys the integrity of the network as a whole.

How Serious Is the Problem?

It has been estimated that spam-related problems are costing the economy upward of $10 billion in lost productivity. This cost is a direct result of time spent by readers of unwanted email and by administrators trying to stop the proliferation.

The problem is, according to the anti-spam company Brightmail, growing at an alarming rate. Brightmail recorded 6.7 million instances of multiple unsolicited messages being sent out in March, a 78% increase from a year ago.

At the same time, an FTC study of 1,000 such emails found that only 10% were backed by real companies offering real products or services. The rest? The FTC said they were scams, directed at stealing money from the users' credit cards.

Email and the Wild West

Yet, despite the public uproar in the media and on Capital Hill, commercial email remains one of the most important mediums for businesses, holding one of the greatest potentials for moving our economy out of its doldrums.

A recent study by META Group (April 22, 2003) showed that 80% of business users prefer communication through email to communication by phone. META's survey was, according to META, conducted with 387 organizations representing a wide range of company sizes and industries worldwide. The research was conducted using a panel consisting of IT and line-of-business personnel as well as corporate executives who make business and/or IT decisions for their organizations. (For more information on the survey findings, visit META Group.)

Business's preference for email underlines the dramatic shift in business communications that is propelling the desire to tame the seemingly lawless Wild West atmosphere of the Internet.

Unwittingly, however, this study is pointing to a divide that is growing between business enterprises and personal users of the Internet: Companies need a secure, commercial environment in which to conduct their business communications and to reach new potential customers. Personal users, however, are bridling at the sheer quantity of messages that they perceive as pure junk, often with lurid subject lines that are ticklers for illegal scams.

Solicited Versus Unsolicited Email

Defining spam thus becomes the issue in and of itself. Although business wants and needs a means of communicating with existing and potential customers, these same customers want to be shielded from unsolicited communications. Defining spam, globally, has become a tricky issue that requires--at one extreme--identifying unscrupulous purveyors of bulk communications, while--at the other extreme--enabling legitimate businesses to continue to communicate and advertise to existing customers. This includes soliciting new customers in a responsible and productive manner.

The existing U.S. Spam Laws provide a means for potential customers to opt-in to legitimate commercial email distributions. (For instance, the email distribution by which this article was distributed to you, as a reader, was initiated when you subscribed to MC Mag Online.) According to these laws, the users of opt-in services must be provided with a simple means within each distribution to remove their names from any opt-in subscription.

These same laws prohibit the sale of email addresses to third parties without the expressed permission of the subscriber. Likewise, statistics and/or personal demographic information about the user cannot be sold to third parties.

All of these requirements must be stated in a privacy notice that is contained in the email distribution itself. (And, by the way, MC Press--the publisher of MC Mag Online--strictly complies with all current applicable U.S. Spam Laws.)

But the real problems associated with the proliferation of spam are the result not of the need for laws but of the email distribution technology itself. How can you prevent abuse by individuals who are clearly acting in an illegal fashion?

Technologies for Secure Email

The current technology employed in email was never designed to handle the issue of unsolicited commercial email. Email sent over the Internet uses relatively benign, transparent, and patently feeble mechanisms to deliver messages, based upon the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) and, by in large, Post Office Protocol Version 3 (POP-3) email clients.

SMTP servers will send almost anything fed to them, and email POP-3 browsers will read anything they receive. Neither technology has a means of determining if the person who sent you the message is legitimate. In fact, it's so easy to lie to these protocols that almost anyone can change a setting in their software and pretend to be someone else. That's the reason spammers can get away with so much: They cloak themselves in obscurity.

This raises the issue of email security. Why can't email be secure?

In the past, technologists were focused upon making certain that the content of the communication within the email itself was secure from hackers who might intercept the email package and abuse what information was contained within. These efforts led to the development of email encryption, which is a continuing source of debate between government security agencies and privacy-rights activists.

But that's not the problem with spam. Who cares if the government reads your spam? (As long as they delete it in the process!) The real problem with spam is not traditional content security, but service security: security in who may access the public networks.

At present, anyone with a computer can obtain a free email account from Yahoo!, Microsoft, or (for a small fee) AOL and begin pelting the network. Worse, anyone with a modicum of technical know-how can forge email headers and distribute untraceable messages through email SMTP servers whose administrators are too ignorant or too complacent to close loopholes.

And the technology of email is so crude that filters cannot staunch the flow of spam and laws designed to punish the perpetrators cannot be enforced. Indeed, no-spam registries themselves will merely make it more illegal to get caught sending spam but will do nothing to halt the flow of the worse kinds of spam: the untraceable spam sent by spammers who steal services or who forge email headers.

The only real "fix" to spam is to create a standard technology that uniquely identifies email users through a security scheme and prevents unsecured users from using the system. This would close the loophole that allows unwanted, non-subscribed communications from distribution, while placing the burden of legitimacy upon the sender of the message itself.

Full Circle--Security Certificates

Of course, this kind of digital security--employing a certificate that identifies the user and validates his profile--is a not new technology at all: Lotus Notes messaging has used it for years, as did other messaging systems prior to the explosion of SMTP and POP3 on the Internet. No Notes user can send an email within a Notes domain without a proper Notes certificate identifying them. Likewise, no Notes user can receive an email from within the Notes domain that has not passed a validation routine. Other messaging systems, like the old MS Mail, had similar requirements. But all of that is gone now with global Internet SMTP mail. It's gone because security was the last thing on the minds of technologists who were pushing for Internet email.

Indeed, it was the sudden, unplanned explosion of POP3 and SMTP servers that has created the technical problem of spam, and it is these twin technologies that must now be modified or replaced. And until the Internet community acknowledges that it has outgrown SMTP and POP3--and addresses the issue with a means of securely identifying Internet email users--no law issued by the US Congress and no "best practices" issued by the nation's purveyors of email services will rid us of this endless and costly abuse.

Thomas M. Stockwell is the Editor in Chief of MC Press, LLC. He has written extensively about program development, project management, IT management, and IT consulting and has been a frequent contributor to many midrange periodicals. He has authored numerous white papers for iSeries solutions providers. His most recent consulting assignments have been as a Senior Industry Analyst working with IBM on the iSeries, on the mid-market, and specifically on WebSphere brand positioning. He welcomes your comments about this or other articles and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Thomas Stockwell

Thomas M. Stockwell is an independent IT analyst and writer. He is the former Editor in Chief of MC Press Online and Midrange Computing magazine and has over 20 years of experience as a programmer, systems engineer, IT director, industry analyst, author, speaker, consultant, and editor.  

 

Tom works from his home in the Napa Valley in California. He can be reached at ITincendiary.com.

 

 

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: