Sunday Times article

Britain's Sunday Times newspaper (http://www.timesonline.co.uk)
printed an article on TMDA today.  I've attached the contents of the
article below since its URL is closed to non-subscribers.  Enjoy.

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Copyright 2003 Times Newspapers Ltd.

April 27, 2003 

Sounding off: And none shall pass

By David Hewson

If there is one question I am asked more than any other it is this:
how on earth do we get rid of all this spam? Well, here is an
answer. Perhaps not the answer for everyone, but one that will fit
many of us well. The first thing to understand in the battle against
spam is that, in many ways, it is lost already. Standard mail accounts
are black holes into which anyone can pour anything they like.

Yes, filtering software can help, either on your own computer or
through the servers of your internet provider. But filters are
fighting a losing battle.  Spam adapts constantly to circumvent the
obstacles people try to place in its path. I have yet to come across a
filter that keeps out all unwanted mail. Or, for that matter, one that
does not, from time to time, try to block genuine messages.

The problem lies with the theory, not the software. As long as your
mailbox is open to all, someone, somewhere will try to dump junk into
it. The blunt answer is to create a white list, rejecting messages
from anyone who is not in your address book.

But what if a stranger wants to send you an e-mail you would like to
receive? With a plain white list, it will never get through. What we
need is some kind of halfway house: a white list with
intelligence. And if you head off over to the home of the Tagged
Message Delivery Agent (at www.tmda.net), that is exactly what you
will find.

The TMDA sits largely unseen on your network's mail servers. If
someone you know sends a message, it comes through normally. If a
stranger mails you, the message is held in a queue while the system
sends a message back to the correspondent. This says, in essence:
"Thanks, but we do not recognise you.  So just click on the
highlighted line in this message, or reply to this mail to confirm you
are a genuine correspondent."

If they do this, their message comes into your inbox and they receive
a confirmation in return. The system is normally set up so that their
address goes onto your white list automatically once they have
confirmed their identity, so that every future message from them will
go through without interruption.

This simple measure stops spam in its tracks. Most junk messages come
from fake e-mail addresses, so there is nobody there to confirm their
validity.  The spam simply dies offscreen.

The bad news is that this is still relatively new technology, used by
only a handful of companies - there is a list on the TDMA site, of
whom the best-known is probably Mailsnare (www.mailsnare.net), an
American paid-for mail service.

There is, though, one big hole to consider. TMDA will block most mass
mailings too, as the software robots that despatch thousands of
messages in one go rarely know what to do if a human being replies to
them. This is, by and large, a good thing, unless you are really
desperate for those mailshot letters that web retailers love to
despatch at random. But other messages could go astray too, such as
order confirmations and ticket reservations from sites such as
Expedia.

There are two ways to deal with this problem. Either make sure you
know the sender's address and add it manually to your white list. Or
use another address, such as your internet provider's or Hotmail, as
the e-mail contact for nothing but online shopping. That extra address
can usually be automatically redirected into your general inbox with
your spam- protected messages.

Yes, it takes a little time to set up and understand. But the upside
is TMDA works, predictably and reliably. Before I signed up, I
received 50 or more junk mails a day. Now, for the first time in
years, not a single piece of spam gets through. Honest ...

Mail topics for discussion to: [email protected]

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