[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

[bryant]

So here's the thing. I'm sitting in a talk about spam, and the guy giving the talk is running over various HTML tricks spammers use to get spam past mail filters. A guy stands up and says "So obviously the trick is to block all email with HTML in it!"

That's just stupid. First off, it ignores reality. I don't live in a world in which I can block all HTML email for all my users; neither do most sysadmins. Second, this is very clearly a talk for people who live in that world. If the context of the talk allowed for blocking all HTML email, then there would be an obvious solution and the talk would take about five minutes.

But you know. He got his cheap laughs, har har har.

Comments

[that-cad.livejournal.com]

First off, it ignores reality.

I don't understand how that's "stupid." Ignoring reality tends to be the only way I can effectively deal with most things.

[vspope.livejournal.com]

At one point, I actually put that (HTML -> trashed) into my personal procmail filter. About .001% of the email people sent me that included HTML was legitimate, and I didn't miss the rest. I eventually turned it off because someone I had an eBay deal with was using some funky mail client and sending HTML mail.

Of course, I'm not a sysadmin.

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

Yeah, one of my coworkers tried to propose the blocking of all HTML mail and all binary attachments. He felt all users should be encouraged to use pine.

Luckily, people not on crack prevailed.

[bryant]

See, it's totally valid for personal email. I deal with a lot of spam problems by using a text-only mail reader, so web bugs and so on never affect me.

[kniedzw.livejournal.com]

I'm on crack in this regard, but I'm not in a position to enforce draconian policies.

...yet.

[kodi]

Hey, I know what you could do!

Get the funny guy's email address, and implement a modified challenge-response system for HTML email only, where every time one comes in, you challenge him, and he lets you know if it's spam or not.