Anti-Spam Tool Kit

Long ago, unsolicited commercial email graduated from annoyance to serious problem. The problem won't go away until the nature of electronic mail changes (to include a per-message fee, for example), which means that there's lots of work for administrators in managing spam and keeping its load off their networks. That's what Anti-Spam Tool Kit is all about. With balanced coverage of networks making use of Microsoft Windows and those based on various forms of Unix, this book delivers the goods on blacklisting, filtering, and sorting strategies for reducing spam while minimizing the effect of anti-spam tools on legitimate electronic mail.

Unlike a lot of systems administration books with soft, filler-laden chapters, this one's all business. It combines survey data (that is, broad-based data that helps you compare alternative anti-spam solutions) with policy advice (how much old mail to archive, for example) and fairly detailed administrative instructions (such as how to automatically query databases of open mail relays). Most of the covered software appears on the companion CD-ROM, at least in demo form. You can get it all online, but this is a convenient package, and--taken together with the authors' well-written guidance--it'll help you do about all you can to minimize spam's effects on the servers you manage. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to cut down on unsolicited commercial email (UCE or spam) by using DNS blacklists, filters (mainly Bayesian classifiers), and the anti-spam features of various email clients (for Windows, Mac, and Linux). Particularly extensive coverage of SpamAssassin appears in this book.

User review
Becomming old but still useful for concepts
This was actually a pleasent find. Some of the info is becoming old such as the discussion over the product `I hate spam` The company has a new product out now.

Probably the most useful chapters were about SpamAssassin and the Baysian formula. They covered the topic well especially SpamAssassin. They are very good introductions to both areas.

I did find all the install discussions a little boring. But I guess if I was trying to install these packages; I would find them useful.

There are discussions over blacklists and it came across as a major solution to the spam assaults. Probably when the book was written, they were the major player. They still are but more of a tiered defense approach to trying to reduce spam.

Another factor showing the age of the book is the light discussion over malware. Malware is becoming a major tool for spam. Again the age of the book.

Missing are the newer things such as reputation filtering (ala Ironport) and outsourcing antispam (ala Postini). But again the age of the book.

Still I find the book useful for background information,,,,





User review
Practical Information and Advice To Help Tame Spam
There is no question that spam is a potential threat to the effectiveness of email as a form of communication and is at the very least an annoyance to anyone who uses email. To that end, a book like this contains valuable advice and information for virtually anyone. The detailed coverage of such a wide variety of tools and techniques- even covering tools for different operating systems and different levels of the network such as client and server- provides a comprehensive `tool kit` for the reader to employ in fighting spam.

The authors provide a sufficient amount of detail for the various tools for the reader to get a feel for their relative pros and cons and how to implement them. SpamAssassin is covered in much greater detail than many of the other products. Many of the tools and utilities covered in the book are included on the accompanying CDROM and are free so you can get right to work blocking spam as soon as you read the book.

There have been some changes in some email clients and the way ISP's handle spam as well as some legal challenges to the concept of RBL's (realtime blackhole lists) since this book came out, but with over 60% of all email being spam it is obvious that many people still need a resource like this.

(,,.)

User review
Good description of state of art in 2003
The book was written around the end of 2003, and gives an excellent technical description of the main antispam techniques being used by ISPs, companies and individuals.

Bayesian techniques are heavily covered here, along with mention of several proprietary versions. The other main technique of note is Realtime Blacklists (RBLs).

But note that the above, and indeed other methods mentioned, suffer from the drawback of heavy manual intervention. For example, to periodically retrain a Bayesian on new sample sets of spam or nonspam. Or, when considering RBLs, having to manually judge whether a given domain is that of a spammer or not.

At the corporate or ISP level, this manual effort is expensive and ongoing. At the individual level, some, like Paul Graham, who suggested using Bayesians, are willing and able to take the time to retrain their Bayesians. But most users are not willing to continuously do this.

One portion of the book is already crucially outdated. In 2004, AOL, and possibly other ISPs, started applying an RBL against domains found inside the bodies of messages, and not just against domains from the headers. As far as I can tell on a reading of this book, whilst it describes various means of finding and applying RBLs, it does not mention the important idea of using them against body domains.

User review
It has the ring of experience.
How do you stop SPAM? There are four main techniques: blacklist subscription,server-based, client-based, gateway-based. Each of these is completely covered, not only as a `do this` approach, but with an explanation of what each approach is trying to do. In addition, the CD included with the book, instead of having a bunch of mostly useless stuff, includes several anti-spam software packages that the authors have found useful in protecting their own organizations from SPAM. These are being distributed under the GNU license, so you are free to use them on your own system. Excellent book!

User review
Actionable spam-fighting tips for users of all types
I've never been interested in viruses, worms, or spam. All three represent the lowest end of malware, with spam occupying a particularly disdainful place in the computer security hierarchy. I wasn't very excited when a review copy of `Anti-Spam Tool Kit` (ASTK) arrived in the mail, but I found myself drawn in by the value of the content and tools it described. I highly recommend anyone tasked with fighting spam read ASTK.

This book is the first to follow in the genre defined by `Anti-Hacker Tool Kit.` While AHTK examined tools used by intruders and defenders, ASTK focuses on tools and techniques to counter unwanted email. AHTK has slightly more coverage of Windows than UNIX applications; ASTK spends more time on Windows, especially with client configurations. As a desktop FreeBSD user, I still found plenty of helpful information.

Since I'm not directly responsible for enterprise anti-spam defenses, ASTK's comparison of the many block lists was particularly enlightening. Prior to reading ch 5 I knew of many lists but not their particular capabilities. I found the coverage of SpamAssassin in chs 6-8 fairly thorough. Ch 14's overview of email and headers very helpful. I had not heard of server-based greylisting until reading ch 15.

I found a few of the authors' comments odd. On p. 250 they claim `most organizations do not run UNIX-based email solutions.` I find this difficult to believe, but no proof for the statement is given. Figure 2.2 in ch 2 shows a mail sender using POP/POP-SSL/IMAP/IMAP-SSL to send email. At least using Mozilla and Firefox on UNIX, I connect to my ISP's SMTP server to send email and then retrieve it with POP or IMAP. In ch 3 the authors advocate IPv6 because it makes `a spammer's identity known and verified even if he or she doesn't want it to be.` IPv6 should not change many, or any, spammer tactics. Spammers aren't forging TCP sessions with IPv4 now; they forge information (headers, etc.) transferred within application layer data. I believe some of these weird comments could have been addressed by more diligent technical editing.

Overall, I found ASTK enlightening and practical. The authors give enough details on various server- and client-side tools to make implementation (at least on a trial basis) possible. I look forward to other tool-related books in the `Anti-Hacker` series.