Attacks prompt shutdown of antispam lists
Three Web sites that provide spam-blocking lists have been forced offline as a result of crippling Internet attacks in what experts say is an escalation in the war between spammers and opponents of unsolicited e-mails.
Antispam experts said Thursday that they believe spammers are behind the attacks, although they have no way of proving it.
The technological war comes as Congress considers a federal antispam law and California adopts what is widely considered to be the toughest such law in the country. The California law, signed Tuesday, allows people to sue spammers for $1,000 per unsolicited e-mail and up to $1 million for a spam campaign.
"This definitely marks an escalation in the spam wars," Andrew Barrett, executive director of the Spamcon Foundation, a spam watchdog group, said of the recent Internet attacks on lists used to block spam. "Before, it was a guerrilla war...This is the first time we've seen (spammers) employ such brazen tactics."
Antispam advocates maintain hundreds of spam-block or "black hole" lists, which are Web sites with lists of the numerical Internet Protocol addresses of specific computers or e-mail servers that are unsecure or are known sources of spam. Network administrators and Internet service providers consult the lists and block e-mails coming from those computers as part of their spam-filtering techniques.
