[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On Sat, May 10, 2014 at 01:29:44PM +0100, Simon Avery wrote: > > It did hit a point where I took an active interest in reducing it by > > adding to the troubles of those instigating it, and of course > > increasing my efforts to persuade people not to host the spammers' > > software of choice - Microsoft Windows. > > More than a few linux systems are compromised and churning out spam. > Perhaps not as many as Windows, but it's by no means a Windows disease. If there's one thing that's changed in spam in the past few years, it's a shift towards spam sent from mostly compromised servers, almost all of which run Linux. According to some figures, about half of today's spam is sent through such servers. This doesn't just give spammers a far better upstream connection, it also means the spam will be sent from a machine and an IP address that would naturally send email. Spam from a compromised home PC is pretty easy to block, and it's also a clear sign to the owner and their ISP that something is not quite right. I did some research last year that showed that spam sent from web hosts was three times more likely to bypass spam filters[1]. The vast majority of it was still blocked, but the factor three can be the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful spam campaign. [1] http://www.virusbtn.com/blog/2013/06_17.xml Martijn. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq