This last August Osirusoft closed the SPEWS list.
SPEWS stands for Spam Prevention Early Warning System. SPEWS was a newsgroup-based list of email addresses and IPs suspected of spamming. SPEWS was a blacklist. What made SPEWS so influential was the fact that they shared their list with spam-blocking software and services like Spam Assassin and SendMail. Lots of users depended on SPEWS to help keep their inboxes spam free.
Anyone will tell you spam is bad. There’s enough scary stuff in email to worry about. Spam just makes it all worse. Spam is junk mail. Spam is obscene. Spam cares not who receives it. Spam wastes storage space and bogs servers. Spammers should be sought out and stopped. The SPEWS list was a good idea, gone wrong.
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"There is such a thing as legitimate email marketing and opt-in lists. This type of marketing works but spammers and lists like SPEWS screw it up for everybody." |
The problem with the SPEWS list was one of inefficient inclusiveness. Instead of blacklisting one individual spammer SPEWS blacklisted entire Internet Providers. This meant that all users of one IP were added to the blacklist regardless of guilt. This inordinate blacklist had the power to block whole regions and countries. The operators of SPEWS did little follow-up investigation or real-time testing and removal from the list was virtually impossible. Once an IP block was added to SPEWS it took heaven and hell to remedy the situation. Added to the inefficiency of SPEWS was the problem of inconsistency. Smaller IPs were at the mercy of SPEWS while big IPs (AOL? Earthlink? MSN?) were magically able to remain off the blacklist. This meant that the spamming could continue if the spammer used the right IP.
Mind you, SPEWS did not go quietly. Regulators didn’t close it down. Litigation wasn’t the cause either. Ironically, spammers brought SPEWS down with repeated DDoS attacks. Spammers flooded the mail servers of Osirusoft until they killed it. On the day Osirusoft/SPEWS operator Joe Jared shit the list down, he did it in a big way. He blacklisted everybody: > ban *.*.*.*
This piece is not meant to be a victory cry for spammers. Spam is evil. Unsolicited invasion of the inbox is a terrible thing. Many times computer viruses and worms are disguised as spam. Spam is everywhere and people are willing to pay for a service or software program in order to block it.
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This piece was written to inform you of the death of a heavy-handed and ultimately unavailing service. The type of blacklisting done by SPEWS hurt a lot of people who don’t spam. There is such a thing as legitimate email marketing and opt-in lists. This type of marketing works but spammers and lists like SPEWS screw it up for everybody. Spammers don’t care to whom they mail. SPEWS didn’t care about who they blacklisted.
The end of SPEWS does not mean the end of open-relay blacklists. There are lists, which do the same job as SPEWS except they do it, equitably better. The Open Relay Database (http://ordb.org) is such a service.
An open relay is a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server, which allows third-party relay of email messages. This kind of server is also referred to as an insecure relay or third-party relay. This type of server will process email from outside parties. Spammers route through open relays thus exploiting them.
The Open Relay Database service not only blacklists the spam sender; they make sure to verify whether or not a complaint is actually spam. Also they don't block entire IPs. Access to the ORDB is free but donations are encouraged. Quite a few use ORDB for spam filtering. Some of them are Apple Computers, Cumulus Broadcasting, Lodgenet and Omnilink. ORDB can be configured for use with Microsoft Exchange Server, MDaemon, Eudora Internet Mail Server as well as almost 30 others.
The best way to protect your mail server is to close any open relays. Unfortunately, many of us use virtual hosting or shared servers. Then the choice of closing open relays becomes that of your host. If your host won't or can't close open relays, then perhaps it's time to shop for a different provider.
Email marketing is a very productive tool if done legally and with permission. Adult Internet businesses use opt-in email lists to send out information to affiliates and customers. Paysites use email to send out newsletters to their subscribers. When implemented in net-etiquette-friendly fashion, email marketing is a good for business. When abused, email is a server-bloating mess of evil spam.