There's no silver bullet for security

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Yahoo's plan

Yahoo's plan is not as complex and CPU intensive as you have made it out to be. The core of the plan is a to ensure that when you receive a message addressed "From:" a yahoo.com address, your mail server can verify it came from a server authorized to send mail for the yahoo.com domain.

If you are an ISP that is tired of getting spoofed spam from bogus yahoo.com addresses, you can implement this system and block those bogus messages at the SMTP header lever-- that is, before the main body of the message is received. This reduces bandwidth, which is a real cost to ISPs.

Now imagine AOL, Hotmail, and other large providers did this as well. Gradualy it becomes harder and harder to forge sending addresses, and easier and easier to block spam as well as track down who sent it. Not a silver bullet, to be sure-- but an effective piece of the overall solution to the spam problem.

I really should not complain about your article, however, since I agree with your core point. I am a security consultant, and my firm emphasizes a "human" touch to analyzing and solving computer security problems. I have had to deal with customers who have been stung with the promises of snake oil solutions, and for them the human touch was a welcome respite. So keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing your byline again.

Posted by: RestonTechAlec   Posted on: 12/11/03 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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