Weblogsky: Stopping spam by retracing its path

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Stopping spam by retracing its path

A team from IBM and New York's Cornell University has developed a new way to spot spam, called SMPT Path Analysis. [Link to article at NewScientist.com]

The algorithm at the heart of SMTP Path Analysis studies Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) information, which is added to an email message "header" as it is passed between servers on the internet. This remains hidden when a message arrives in a recipient's inbox but can be used retrace its steps between different mail servers.

Most spam filters try to catch spam by looking at the content of a message, rather than its hidden header. Many already learn to identify new spam by examining previous message. But spammers are constantly coming up with new tricks in an effort to outwit such content-filtering techniques.

jon posted this at 8:08 PM
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