Page 18 - link magazine

18 The Link Magazine • August 2004
Is your PC Spam, spam, spam, spam...
bugging you? uklinks4 It's the bane of modern lives says Independent IT security consultant
David Biggins from Eastleaze
Call Practical ^^ There are some I daily find my emails buried by adverts for unwanted financial
Applications Ltd services, 'recreational pharmaceuticals' and offers to enlarge various
for a friendly service great resources anatomical features.., a thankless job, advertising products where
• Upgrades • Repairs your headline is a personal insult to your intended clients, yet I feel
• Networking & the internet on the Internet. little sympathy for the senders.
• Home visits, collection Spam — junk email — is named it in any public place.
& delivery But do you know after a Monty Python comic sketch, In California, protestors signed
Or for help getting started, call where they are? not directly after the meat, al- a major spammer up for every
t
us days, evenings or weekends on though the SPAM"'"" people are not known piece of paper junk mail.
01793 321361 We do! amused. As a result, he was getting through
Mobile 07919 263072 Two thirds of all email is now three waste skips per day — not a
spam - clogging up mailboxes, solution, since it is sadly illegal,
E-mail: [email protected]
www.practicalapplications.co.uk www. ti klinks4.com slowing down networks, much of but poetic justice.
it unacceptable in content. It is one Various bodies are working on
of the biggest nuisances on the technical methods to fight spam.
internet and to Unfortunately, I fear
many, the most ob- that side-effects of
jectionable. these solutions may
Dealing with make it harder for small
spam resembles a businesses to use the
war. Filters based on net, and that many
lists of unacceptable spammers will bypass
words were de- them by using viruses
feated by spammers to hijack peoples' PCs
misspelling or dis- to send spam un-
guising those traceably -but more on
words. Statistical fil- that later.
ters are increasingly challenged by
messages padded with random Priory Vale
text. A filter that only accepts email
from people you know may suc- by-passed by BT
ceed — until viral techniques make BT are celebrating that all their
spam seem to come from your Wiltshire exchanges are now
friends. Besides, businesses need Broadband enabled, but residents
to receive email from people they in parts of Oakhurst, Priory Vale
don't already know. and also Taw Hill are still frus-
Organisations like Spamhaus trated by the lack of service - be-
publish block-lists — and are sued cause their homes are too far from
by spammers for interrupting the exchange in Blunsdon.
c!4 WeOfrke trade. Laws controlling spam are A recent survey of Priory Vale
bypassed by sending from coun- residents revealed that:
tries with weaker laws, or just ig-
• 86% of Priory Vale residents own
nored.
a computer at home;
Prosecutions have started • Of those, 49% think they are un-
against the biggest spammers, but able to access broadband via their
will take years. Since the vast ma- BT landline, while only 21% are
jority of spam is from the USA, able to use broadband at this time.
the laws will first be challenged • 76% of Priory Vale residents who
against their constitutional free- are unable to receive broadband
dom of speech. would like to do so, and 47% of
James Butcher Housing So there is no cure. But you can residents would be willing to join
do things to help:
Association provides a a campaign to bring broadband
• Some spam silently confirms throughout the area.
wide choice of quality, your email address when it is dis- One resident comments, "BT
affordable housing for played. Turn off the preview pane boast that every new development
in your mail reader, so that no
those in retirement in the messages are displayed unless you will have access to broadband,
what happened at Priory Vale?"
Swindon area. explicitly open them; Jason Mann from BT com-
• Get a good spam filter and keep mented, "a very small minority of
it up to date;
Tel: 01672 515622 customers on an exchange (typi-
• Never click anything in a spam cally about 1 in 25) are out of reach
www.jbha.co.uk email, even the 'opt out' hotspot - of ADSL broadband. When the
it may only confirm your email distance from the exchange gets
address; close to the current limit the situa-
• Do not set your filter to reply tion can vary even among custom-
with 'non-delivery' notices — most ers in the same street. Some might
James Butcher spam forges its 'from' address, so be able to get the service and oth-
you will be sending to the wrong
Housing Association person; ers might not. We are currently
• Never give your email address conducting trials to extend the
Providing accommodation throughout the central and south of England. reach and if these are successful
to any website unless you trust
A charity, incorporated as an Industrial and Provident Society No. 16602 R. then many of these people should
their privacy policy, and never post
be able to get broadband."