Saying "No!" to spam
Was this helpful?
752 out of 1288 people found this post helpful.
Spam is something that affects each and every one of us who have email. Spam is thought to have its beginnings in 1996 when Dave Rhodes is attributed as being the first user to send an unsolicited mail to a large group of users. Rhodes created an email that marketed a pyramid scheme and then sent to every newsgroup on USENET. Thousands of users were hit with a message titled "MAKE MONEY FAST". There is still contention that Rhodes ever existed as his reputed university has no record. The first spoofed, unsolicited mail had just made its mark on the coming virtual age and it wasn't long until others followed suit.
The contribution of Microsoft in this area is one of our core fundamentals. Microsoft led the charge against Robert Soloway, the Seattle "Spam King" which led to his arrest and subsequent conviction on July 22, 2008. Soloway plead guilty to felony mail fraud, fraud in connection with email, and failure to file a tax return resulting in a 47 month sentence and a fine of $700,000. We continue this work with groups such as the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), the Global Infrastructure Alliance for Internet Safety (GIAIS), and the Microsoft Security Response Alliance (MSRA).
Every day, spammers attempt to send unsolicited mail to users both into and from our servers. This lends to a very complex and holistic approach for how we combat these attempts and try to keep your inbox clean. Since spamming is a multi-million dollar industry, their motivation to change tactics is as high as ours for blocking their latest attempts.
The scale of this work is staggering. On a single day, we block billions of spam messages from hitting Hotmail® inboxes; but this is just the beginning. Blocking incoming messages is just one facet of what is a comprehensive system of inputs and decisions. In addition to blocking messages with spam characteristics, our systems learn from our users mailing habits and are able to make determinations that they are a spammer; for instance a user that sends the same mail every day to large distribution lists is a prime candidate for closure.
Another facet of protecting our users is to shut off the spam at the source. This means determining where that spam is coming from and then shutting down that path. This is done by finding the IP address which is sending spam to our customers. To date, we have blocked almost 557 million unique IP addresses known to be sending spam. We also offer a different email sending experience for IPs based on their historical reputation with Hotmail. In short, an IP that has no history of sending spam is more likely to deliver emails to Hotmail customers than an IP that has sent spam. Once we determine a reputation for the IP address, we then determine if we allow emails to the inbox, send to junk folders, or block entirely. We also work closely with legitimate email senders, through our postmaster services, so that they can reach Hotmail® customers.
The final piece of the protection is articles such as this. We try to bring to you the most current security information and how to protect yourself as is available. Through continued education, partnership of the user community and service providers, and continuing legislative paths; spam is something that can be managed successfully.
Take Our Survey! - Tell us how YOU think we are doing in the fight against spam.
Until the next time...
-s
