Re: whitelisting links (was Re: misconception in SPF)

On Dec 10, 2012, at 12:24 PM, Paul Smith <[email protected]> wrote:

> On 10/12/2012 18:23, Martijn Grooten wrote:
>>> I'd say yes because it would probably
>>> catch 99% of the bad links that I see in phishing/spam
>> No it would not, not even close to that. A lot of spam links to legitimate but compromised domains.
> Maybe - but most of those compromised domains are not domains which the user would normally go to.
> 
> So, even if the link is to a 'legitimate' domain, the vast majority would be to domains which the user does not recognise. So, it would catch those.
> 
> Remember, the idea wasn't to have a 'global' list of 'good domains', but ones which the *user* has whitelisted, so the user recognises them.

If it's user managed - rather than managed by a third party that actually keeps track of who is a bank and who isn't - I'd guess it'd just lead to meta-phishing, where the goal is to get the user to add a link to their whitelist, rather than having them click on a link.

Cheers,
  Steve