Hackers Against Spam

from the solution-needed dept

On Friday, anti-spam hackers from around the world will be gathering at MIT to see what they can do to stop spam. A few different anti-spam systems will be discussed and hopefully, getting so many anti-spam minds together will help them all come up with even better ideas for blocking spam. They do say that, in the end, it may be up to the ISPs to really make this a priority. Of course, what the article leaves out is that some of these ISPs and spam filters have become too strict in their anti-spam policies, making them block perfectly legitimate emails without being concerned about the consequences. For example, Barry Shein, who we've spoken about before, is attending the conference and continues his take-no-prisoners anti-spam rhetoric. I agree that spam is terrible, but views like Barry's that say that we need to throw out the good along with the bad (without any recourse) simply go way too far. The article also suggests that a few spammers will be attending the conference as well (and that they should watch out for their health), but as they point out - a good anti-spam system should stop spam even if everyone knows exactly how it works.