Tag Archives: spam

February, 2010

• 26 February

  Limit the incoming email rate in Postfix

  Question: I have spammers sending multiple email messages to my mail server. How can can I limit the number of emails they can send in a given amount of time? Answer: This is a trick that many spammers and malicious hackers will use to flood your server with their nonsense. …

January, 2010

• 6 January

  Testing your mail server for an open relay

  Question: How do I make sure my mail server isn’t an open relay? Answer: First we should be clear on what an open relay is. According to spamhelp.org, an open relay is: “a mail server that does not verify that it is authorised to send mail from the email address …
• 6 January

  What is DNSBL and should I care about it?

  Question: What is DNSBL and should I care about it? Answer: DNSBL stands for DNS Block List or Blacklist. Essentially, it is a published list of ipp addresses that are in some way connected to spam. Although the most common form of DNSBL is a list of actually servers and/or …

November, 2009

• 24 November

  How to defend a virtual private server from hackers

  Email forms are a common way for hackers to send spam. If you use email forms such as Matt’s script (often known as FormMail) or other similar mail scripts, your server could be vulnerable to attacks. If you have clients or simply other users creating sites on your server, you …

September, 2009

• 3 September

  Stomping Out Spam

  Spam is an ongoing problem with any email account, but many people with their own websites are suddenly placed in the position of needing to fight spam on their own. A good web host, however, will provide you with options that should make it pretty painless for you. When I …
• 1 September

  Free DNS Tools for Web Hosting

  Inevitably, there are times when you need to do troubleshooting of your web and email services, or you simply need to make sure all of your network services are operating correctly. For years, I have relied on one free service to handle most of my DNS needs. It is called …

June, 2009

• 30 June

  Two Chinese domain registrars to blame

  The names of the two Chinese domain registrars allegedly responsible for a large chunk of the world’s spam, have come under fire from University of Alabama’s director of research, Gary Warner. Last week I posted a short entry about Warner’s research, concluding that 70 percent of spam originated in China. …
• 24 June

  Chinese domains linked to 70 percent of SPAM

  A new report by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has concluded that as much as 70 percent of all spam sent in 2009 originated from domains ending in .cn, China’s top-level country domain. Furthemore, the report claims to have confirmed that nearly all of those spam messages originated …
• 11 June

  Triple Fiber Network Responds to Shutdown

  A week ago from today, the FTC shut down California web host Triple Fiber Network (3FN) for hosting illegal content, including child pornography, malware, and the infamous “Cutwail” botnet. In a press release riddled with broken English and grammatical errors, the company responded to the shutdown. Triple Fiber blasted the …
• 9 June

  Phishers have new tools

  According to two reports released by the security company Symantec, phishers and spammers are coming up with new ways to attack their victims. In the past they almost exclusively relied on forged emails and web sites. Now, social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook can be added to their lists …