Spam protest service criticized as 'vigilante'

Iria · Jul 21, 2005, 03:30 AM

NEW YORK - Escalating the war on spam, a California company wants to let thousands of users collaborate to disable the Web sites spammers use to sell their wares.

A leading anti-spam advocate, however, criticized Blue Security Inc.'s Blue Frog initiative as being no more than a denial-of-service attack, the technique hackers use to effectively shut down a Web site by overwhelming it with fake traffic.

"It's the worst kind of vigilante approach," said John Levine, a board member with the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail. "Deliberate attacks against people's Web sites are illegal."

Levine recalled a screen saver program that the Web portal Lycos Europe distributed briefly last year. The program was designed to overwhelm sites identified by Lycos as selling products pitched in spam.

Eran Reshef, Blue Security's founder and chief executive, denied any wrongdoing, saying Blue Frog was merely empowering users to collectively make complaints they otherwise would have sent individually.

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Read More / Source: MSNBC

Matth · Jul 21, 2005, 04:15 PM

Very clever.. now the spammer only has to find a list of the "honeypots" and then spam their opposition to them.

Seriously, something like "unsolicited Commando" may be a better approach , where instead of trying to do a brute-force takedown, it attempts to timewaste then by filling in false but believable information on order forms, help forms etc.

Any company that believes spam is a legitimate marketing tactic, deserves any retaliation they get.

Jul 21, 2005, 03:30 AM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	Spam protest service criticized as 'vigilante' NEW YORK - Escalating the war on spam, a California company wants to let thousands of users collaborate to disable the Web sites spammers use to sell their wares. A leading anti-spam advocate, however, criticized Blue Security Inc.'s Blue Frog initiative as being no more than a denial-of-service attack, the technique hackers use to effectively shut down a Web site by overwhelming it with fake traffic. "It's the worst kind of vigilante approach," said John Levine, a board member with the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail. "Deliberate attacks against people's Web sites are illegal." Levine recalled a screen saver program that the Web portal Lycos Europe distributed briefly last year. The program was designed to overwhelm sites identified by Lycos as selling products pitched in spam. Eran Reshef, Blue Security's founder and chief executive, denied any wrongdoing, saying Blue Frog was merely empowering users to collectively make complaints they otherwise would have sent individually. __________ Read More / Source: MSNBC

Jul 21, 2005, 04:15 PM	#2
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	Very clever.. now the spammer only has to find a list of the "honeypots" and then spam their opposition to them. Seriously, something like "unsolicited Commando" may be a better approach , where instead of trying to do a brute-force takedown, it attempts to timewaste then by filling in false but believable information on order forms, help forms etc. Any company that believes spam is a legitimate marketing tactic, deserves any retaliation they get.