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Re: getting viruses/spam after posting to this list



On Thu, Oct 16, 2003 at 10:56:13AM +0100, Eliot Stock wrote:
| After my first post to this list last night, I woke up this morning
| to find 40 helpful "MS security updates" in my inbox.
| 
| How are other people dealing with this?

Join the club.  My answer is in the archives and various parts of the
web.

| Does the list consider this a problem,

No, not really.  Well, that depends on how you define it and from what
perspective you are looking at it.

| or is it just up to me to fight this at my server?

Yes.

| If so a pointer to any URLs that lay out all the options for
| server-side spam and virus blocking would be helpful, maybe it's
| time I installed something.

A day or two ago I outlined the 3 layers of defense I use.  I never
see any spam outside of my "spam" and "unsure" folders, and spam in
the unsure folder (in fact, anything in the unsure folder) is
infrequent.

Perhaps I should publish more of the specific details sometime.  Maybe
this weekend after I finish some other projects around the house.

| Is obfuscating addresses on the list pointless because harvesters
| aren't fooled?

Yes.  Any "regular" (computable, predicable, etc.) method can easily
and automatically be undone.  Obfuscating the address before you send
mail out simply makes it a PITA for real people who need/want to
contact you personally for real reasons.  If that is your only/main
defense then you run the risk of forgetting to obfuscate it one time
and letting the cat out of the bag.  You also run the risk of
forgetting to unobfuscate it when sending official mail (eg
communication about job offers or something).  The list archives can't
help you because anyone can provide whatever archive they want (eg the
mail->news gateways, which is where it seems swen gets its data from).

-D

-- 
If you want to know what God thinks about money,
just look at the people He gives it to.
    -- Old Irish Saying
 
http://dman13.dyndns.org/~dman/

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