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Microsoft Steps Up Spam Fight

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

May 26, 2005, 12:46 PM

Microsoft on Thursday announced two new services aimed at curbing the ever-increasing amounts of spam making its way into MSN Hotmail customers' inboxes. Called MSN Postmaster and Smart Network Data Services, together the services will both ensure legitimate bulk e-mail makes it to Hotmail customers, as well as add an extra line of defense against unwanted spam.

Available in 10 languages, the MSN Postmaster web site will act as a virtual clearinghouse for information on issues and solutions regarding sending e-mail to subscribers of Hotmail. It will also help users to report cases of abuse and aid to troubleshoot issues with sending mail to the service.

With the release of Postmaster comes a preview release of Smart Network Data Services. The application will let an ISP see how much mail is being sent to Hotmail, as well as what percentage is being marked as spam. Through this feature, an ISP will be able to find out what machines may be either compromised, or uncover users that are abusing their accounts to send out unsolicited e-mail.

"MSN Postmaster and Smart Data Network Services represent a move by Microsoft toward broader, more-comprehensive and transparent information-sharing with ISPs and e-mail senders to help protect e-mail and ensure that it continues to be an essential and valuable communications tool," said Kevin Doerr, product unit manager for MSN Hotmail at Microsoft.

The new services complement an existing Microsoft technology called Sender ID, which Hotmail implemented in January. The service acts as a way to prevent domain spoofing. When the Hotmail detects a legitimate Sender ID, it will allow the mail to go through; if it cannot identify a Sender ID, or has reasons to believe it is spam, it is sent to the user's junk mail folder.

Microsoft plans to make Sender ID more visible to consumers in an upcoming release of Hotmail, which it hopes will increase public awareness of the technology and push other providers to use it as well.

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By zmerch

edited Jun 1, 2005 - 12:05 PM

Then why in %deity's sake can't they make their own hotmail.com servers SMTP compliant? I can't block a *lot* of spam that purports to come from hotmail.com because M$ won't use the fully qualified domain name of their actual servers in the HELO string during the SMTP conversation - their servers all say 'hotmail.com'.

Oh, and M$'s "Sender ID" technology isn't really theirs either, but that's no big surprise, eh?

Ungh. Yet more FUD from M$. Now back to your regularly scheduled drivel...

Score: 0

By Mark Gillespie

posted May 27, 2005 - 8:38 AM

Is there such thing as "legitimate bulk e-mail"

Marketting men will answer yes, but I think anything bulk, implies sending to people wether they want it or not, i.e. spam.

Score: 0

By guybru$h

edited May 27, 2005 - 12:06 PM

What they meant is, for example, an e-zine or digest that one might have enroled to. You are confusing "bulk" with "spam" (aka, junk or unsolicited).

Score: 0

By yohimbe9

posted May 27, 2005 - 12:19 PM

I completely agree with guybru$h. Have you never signed up for an email list? I subscribe to several, both as a consumer (Alienware iTunes, Budshop.com, etc) and from a business perspective (HP, Dell, ClickZ, etc). These are all sent out in bulk and are all opt-in services.

Score: 0

By breakthru

edited May 26, 2005 - 4:38 PM

i hope no one will ever use a microsoft s*** for e-mail since windows holes are the main reason for all of the spam around..
they could just fix theyr loosy software to stop spam if they ever had intention to stop spam.

Score: 0

By yohimbe9

posted May 27, 2005 - 12:16 PM

Take a look at the latest US-CERT bulletin (http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/bulletins/SB05-145.html) and you'll find way more *NIX security issues. Granted these are across dozens of distros and such but the numbers are still there. MS just has such a high software presence that a) we hear about it more and b) they're exploited more.

Score: 0

By KSzostek

posted May 26, 2005 - 6:30 PM

You need to get the facts before opening your mouth.

Score: 0

By Maestr0

posted May 26, 2005 - 6:22 PM

You must not know much about how software works. I can promise you, without a doubt, that the fact that Windows has security holes has NOTHING to do with the spam I receive marketing Cialis and Viagra. If you think using Linux or Mac will inheritly stop those spams, then I have a bridge I would like to sell you

Score: 0

By guybru$h

posted May 27, 2005 - 12:09 PM

Perhaps breakthru meant that unsecured machines on the internet are the ones being used to relay spam, and most of them are Windows-mased machines? However, most of these problems are related to user's ignorance (for not knowing how to lock down their machines or exchange servers).

Score: 0

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