Antispam

September 24th, 2004

MARID shutdown

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IETF shutdown MARID working group. (See Ted Hardie’s email to the MARID mailing list). No more SPF, CallerID, PRA/SenderID or MAILFROM/SenderID…

I don’t know what I feeling now. On one hand, I have been a strong supportor of SPF/SenderID and it is sad we lost one tool to fight spam1. On the other hand, I have a discussion with Microsoft folks just two weeks ago in Busan wrt to SenderID, IETF, IPR. They were quite certain their IPR wouldnt pose a problem so in a way, I am feeling ‘I told you so…’. But alas..*sigh*

1 Yes, I am aware SPF/SenderID doesn’t stop spam. But in order to enforce any antispam law, you must first be able to identify the spammer and that’s what MARID can help (to certain extend).

September 9th, 2004

Busan Day 2 – Emerging Spam

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Yesterday, the speakers have more or less covered almost all the current antispam techniques, I wonder if I should repeat them again for my talk today which will probably makes it pretty boring. Or should I do something else and make it interesting…so I did the latter :-)

Since my session is ‘Emerging Technologies’, I decided to turn my talk to ‘Emerging Spam’.

Business communications technologies has constantly evolvoing, from Postal Mail to Telegraph to Telephone to Fax to today Email. By historical trends, we should not expect Email to be the end of this evolution1.

And if we look at generic problem of “spam” (ie. bulk unsolicated commerical communication) it has also followed the communication evolution too. From Junk Mails to Junk Fax to Junk Voice Mail to Email Spam, we can also expect spams to exists in new form of communication technologies.
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September 8th, 2004

Busan Day 1 – OECD Antispam Toolkit

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OCED Antispam Workshop is a suit and tie conference, something I am not very used to. Luckily, knowing Korea, I packed my suit with me so I dont look so out of place this time round.

The main discussion on Day 1 revolves around an “OCED Antispam Toolkit”. But don’t think of it as a technology thingie but more like a ‘toolbox’. Basically, it is a document that integrates the multi-layer elements into a coordinated whole. In layman terms, it provides information and practical guidance for a ‘government/regulator’ who wish to tackle spams, ranging from legistration, consumer education/awareness, industry self-regulation, industry participations and international cooperations. (Does this sound like Singapore Multiprong Antispam effort? :-)

Sadly, it is still a work in process so no draft of the document was circulated…

September 8th, 2004

No long term solution

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My talk at the OCED is tomorrow but I think I can share my last slide now…Oh boy, I am going to have fun! :-)

oced-antispam.PNG
[There is no long term (antispam) solution. (In the long run, there is no Email)]

August 3rd, 2004

Day 2 at IETF

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I found out I left my power adaptor in the airport lounge in LAX and now stuck here with a risk of power shortage :P Luckily, Andrew was kind enough to visit Frys1 with me yesterday and I got a new power adaptor. The bad news is the Frys only have this ridiculous looking adaptor and it looks really dumb! :P

Anyway, I attended the Application Area meeting. Tim Bray gave an update of ATOM and what it aims to achieve and I just subscribe to the mailing list. I might just work on ATOM support in D4B but Tim asked me to hold back for a few more months as the specs is under going a major change.

The other thing thing that interest me is MARID. Marshall Rose gave an presentation on SenderID and he is pretty confident he can wrap things up in August. That’s a very good news :-)

1 I remember I bought my first digital camera from this Frys in 2000. I was here with Maynard and we were arguing who gets the last digital camera they have left :-)

July 7th, 2004

ITU-WSIS Antispam Summit

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ITU and WSIS is organizing an Anti-spam Summit from 7th July to 9th July. Due to my already heavy travel commitment, I wouldn’t be able to attend but one of my guy, Khee Yoke, will be presenting a technical paper.

So if you are in Geneva right now and attending the summit, please say hi to Khee Yoke and Lawrence.

May 25th, 2004

Singapore Multi-Pronged Antispam Measure

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Finally! One of my my team work has gone public today :-)

To reduce e-mail spam in Singapore, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has worked closely with the three major Internet Service Providers, Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE), Direct Marketing Association of Singapore (DMAS), Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) to introduce a multi-pronged approach to tackle e-mail spam. The various anti-spam measures developed aim to protect the interests of e-mail users from the impact of e-mail spam.

Other then bringing spam as an issue for the power-to-be, we also put together the National Antispam Website. :-)

Incidently, also check out the survey IDA conduct last year on spam problem in Singapore. Quite a lot of interesting statistic there…

January 31st, 2004

Secure your Server

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FTC is urgings companies to close their open proxies. I play a small role in advising IDA to participate in this initiative.

Sure, whats the point of closing open proxy now that most spams dont even go through open proxy? But “why not?”. Yes, we can do more but that is a story for another day…