[Mimedefang] FTC asks ISPs to crack down on zombie PCs

[Ian Mitchell]

> Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 19:44:49 +0200
> From: ADNET Ghislain <gadnet at aqueos.com>
> Subject: Re: [Mimedefang] FTC asks ISPs to crack down on zombie PCs
>
>   Can you broaden my vision of thing and give some exemples where the
> hoster's smtp server and the ISP smtp server is not enough so you would
> want to use your own internal smtp server to send emails from a
> dsl/cable line ?  As far as my short sight see the only reason i see is
> hidding behing unstable ip and fairly untrackable source (yes this is
> fairly limited but meant to make people react and enlighten me rather
> than drop this mail to the trashcan :) ?

Privacy. TLS encryption from MTA to MTA through the ISP is a good example.
And as for hiding. There's not much hiding involved. Tools like netcraft
do a good job at tracking all the IP's I've ever used. Further more, the
ISP keeps logs (or atleast they SAY they do) of all the IP's assigned via
DHCP. So there's not much hiding involved. Primarily, it's privacy. Now,
if 25 inbound was shut down (which I could see an ISP doing) then I would
seriously be in trouble because there'd be no inbound email any longer.

>   Any way if the use are limited i think changing the habbit of a
> minority toi protect the internet as a whole is a good trade off :)

I disagree.

> Sure, by all means, if you see someone sending an unusual amount of email
> from an adsl line, investigate that.  But don't expect me to stick around
> and do business with you if you treat me as a second class citizen.

Agreed!

> For the record, SBC's dsl started doing this (in michigan at least), and
> started doing it without any advanced warning no less.  But at least they
> provided an option for letting you get exempted from the block.

BTW, I noticed SBC in the Houston area seemed to start adding their
systems behind a firewall and started issuing private IP's (172.16-32.x.x)
for their addresses. Is that the case? Or are they doing that for specific
problem children?