Stopping Spam: Stamping Out Unwanted Email and News Postings - Softcover

Schwartz, Alan; Garfinkel, Simson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156592388X ISBN 13: 9781565923881

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, 1998

Synopsis

This is a book about spam -- unwanted email messages and inappropriate news articles -- and what you can do to prevent it, stop it, and even outlaw it. It's a book for people who have seen their mailboxes fill up with useless messages and unsolicited advertisements, and who are tired of footing the bill for them in their Internet service charges. It's a book for people who are upset that they can't find the on-topic postings in their once-helpful newsgroups, and fear that the community of newsgroup readers will dissolve in disgust.Stopping Spam looks at the problem of spam and explains ways you can eliminate unwanted messages and news postings. It provides information of use to individual users (who don't want to be bothered by spam) and to system administrators (also news administrators, mail administrators, and network administrators, who are responsible for minimizing spam problems within their organizations or service providers). It covers:

• Introduction to spam: what is it, why is it a problem, who are the spammers and why do they do it, what are the types of spam (spam that sells things, spam that contains political messages, spam that hurts people's reputations), what is its history, what is its impact on the Internet now and in the future?
• Internet messaging: a brief look at the technical underpinnings of Internet messaging to explain how email and spam work.
• User's guides to email and news spam: how to protect your email address, filter email and news articles, and respond to spam.
• Administrator's guide: how to trace spam, make policy choices for your site, block both incoming and outgoing spam, and select the right technical tools.
• Community responses: how to join forces to defeat spam. There are many possible responses to spam: simply delete it, complain to spammers and/or their service providers, share information, trap spammers, litigate, campaign for legislative solutions, use the media.
• Other resources: offline and online documents, tools, mailing lists, and more.

About this title

Review

If unwanted advertising is filling your e-mail and clogging up your favorite newsgroups, or if you're a system administrator plagued by spammers, you'll love this book. Schwartz and Garfinkel examine the growth of spam and give readers the tools to help end the problem.

The authors first explain why spam is more than just a mere annoyance and offer solutions that anyone with a basic knowledge of how the Internet and e-mail work can understand. Readers without such knowledge needn't worry--the chapter on Internet basics can get them up to speed.

Schwartz and Garfinkel demonstrate technical, political, and social approaches to keeping spam out of your mailbox and off your system. They discuss the many ways spammers falsify their mail, using fraudulent techniques to disguise where they come from. The authors show you how to avoid being fooled and what you can do to help catch abusers and make them responsible for their misbehavior. --Elizabeth Lewis

About the Author

Simson Garfinkel, CISSP, is a journalist, entrepreneur, and international authority on computer security. Garfinkel is chief technology officer at Sandstorm Enterprises, a Boston-based firm that develops state-of-the-art computer security tools. Garfinkel is also a columnist for Technology Review Magazine and has written for more than 50 publications, including Computerworld, Forbes, and The New York Times. He is also the author of Database Nation; Web Security, Privacy, and Commerce; PGP: Pretty Good Privacy; and seven other books. Garfinkel earned a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University in 1988 and holds three undergraduate degrees from MIT. He is currently working on his doctorate at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science.

Alan Schwartz, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of clinical decision making in the Departments of Medical Education and Pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also the author of Managing Mailing Lists and the coauthor of Stopping Spam (both from O'Reilly). He serves as a consultant on Unix system administration for several ISPs. In his spare time, he develops and maintains the PennMUSH MUD server and brews beer and mead with his wife, with whom he also develops and maintains their son. Turn-ons for Alan include sailing, programming in Perl, playing duplicate bridge, and drinking Anchor Porter. Turn-offs include spam and watery American lagers.

Edition details

• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 156592388X
• ISBN 13: 9781565923881
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 191