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Spam. Is spam a problem?. Bandwidth hogging -> slower, costlier Discourages use of net (e-mail, e-commerce) Productivity -> loss of time and money Receiver pays (but not freemail, just in inconvenience), esp. in mobile wireless (Japan e.g.) Potential for fraud, esp. phishing/spoofing
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Is spam a problem? • Bandwidth hogging -> slower, costlier • Discourages use of net (e-mail, e-commerce) • Productivity -> loss of time and money • Receiver pays (but not freemail, just in inconvenience), esp. in mobile wireless (Japan e.g.) • Potential for fraud, esp. phishing/spoofing • Missing legitimate messages (false positives) • E-mail harvesting -> privacy • Viruses: propagation of open relays, etc. (80% of spam through relays) • Offensive content
Current Approaches • Technical solutions: • Filtering at the client-side • Filtering of mail server-side • IETF’s MARID: Authentication (started with SPF, which AOL championed; then MSFT introduced Caller ID for e-mail, for which it is holding patents) (but MARID shuttered on 9/22/04) • Domain Keys: Authentication using keys (encryption) based upon domain names: Yahoo! (could add another level of security by using a certificate authority) • Technically complementary. Think of it as two conversations: one at SMTP conversation level; one at the header level • Blacklisting (ISPs subscribe to a blacklist from a private organization) • ISPs slowing down passage of high-volume messages. • China:
Current Approaches • Contract (ISP – User): • e.g., complete header information required • (bad for reputation, could get blacklisted, ISPs) • Legislation • CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 • EU Directive • International cooperation for enforcement • MoU between three countries to improve enforcement • Bilateral MoU approach (Australia-Korea) • Norms • Failed almost completely: shame • User education • Market-based solutions • Spam has an economic cost. “E-postage idea”: added transaction costs. (Computational speed costs approach.) • Bonded Sender
Future Approaches • Standardized e-mail addresses
What are the priorities? • Government enforcement • Criminal enforcement by FBI, US DOJ • Consumer protection US FTC, US DOJ (but see prestige in the anti-trust group) • But you have the int’l problem (do you need a TRIPS agreement analog?) • Internally focused remedies • Invest in private security systems & shore up your own systems • Work with other companies to improve security, customer awareness • Self-help remedies in the law • Trying the find the perpetrators & suing them • Pressure ISPs to fix the problem • Customer education (the only final answer?)