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Spam fighters duke it out

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4
Andrew Cohen
07-24-2000
08:04 AM ET (US)
 I am curious as to the background to Keith's statement that "This hair-of-the-dog approach is troublesome on moral grounds...". Is it immoral to probe for ports? Why?

As far as providing a list of open relays for spammers to exploit, this is similar to identifying security holes. While one might argue that keeping security holes secret if there is no practical fix to the hole, it seems obvious that publically identifying holes (and spam friendly sites) provides the motivation to apply the easy (trivial?) fixes necessary to close them.

The published policies of ORBS and MAPS are not inherently in conflict.

The behaviors of both seem to have been outside of their own policies.
3
Chris Adams
07-21-2000
02:32 AM ET (US)
ORBS launched smear campaign against MAPS & Above.net but it's really just a major screwup by ORBS' ISP.

The news is that Above.net got tired of ORBS repeatedly port-scanning systems (which they do frequently). ORBS refuses to stop scanning systems and there are many, many complaints about the ORBS crew being very hard to work with. This is one of the reasons why they've been kicked out by at least one ISP.

So, Above.net blocks ORBS on their network so their customers won't keep getting scanned. Enter ORBS's ISP in New Zealand, which publishes incorrect routing tables listing Above.net as the route to ORBS. The problem here is completely the fault of ORBS's ISP; Above.net is in no way obligated to carry ORBS traffic. The blocking effect is only on Above.net's internal network (which they are free to run as they see fit) and would never affect anyone other than Above.net customers (few people, because most of Above.net's business is hosting) except that ORBS's ISP screwed up and basically told everyone on the Internet to route traffic through Above.net.

The vigilantes at ORBS had a screwup on their network and blamed it on the much more respected MAPS crew. The usual lies and accusations are still flowing; film at 11.
Edited 07-21-2000 02:34 AM
2
quonsar
07-20-2000
08:27 PM ET (US)
 i'm dancing. those nazi-bastards at ORBS have a server of mine listed as an open relay. it doesn't. it won't. may the bunch of them never come out of that black hole.
1
Keith Dawson
07-20-2000
01:42 PM ET (US)
 Use this forum to comment on the article "Spam fighters duke it out" in TBTF for 2000-07-20: Many fathers (http://tbtf.com/archive/2000-07-20.html#s03).