Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2004 12:24:47 -0600 From: "Brian Kelsay" [email protected] Subject: Fighting a spam fire with a DDoS To: [email protected] Message-ID: [email protected] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
This method looks like it is being accepted by the general public. I only hope that something positive comes about from it and not just more net slow-downs in the long run.
Spammers get taste of their own medicine
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/cd592a7a-433e-11d9-bea1-00000e2511c8.html
Brian Kelsay
This idea didn't sound like a good one the first time I heard about it years ago, and it still doesn't now.
-- Warning: rambling rant aimed at no one in particular follows --
There is a finite amount of bandwidth out there, so why do we want to use up even more of it?
It's funny when people use terms like "business model" in relation to spammers because it paints a picture of spammers as clean, intelligent, well-organized business professionals which I think is rather inaccurate. Rather, I see spammers as a very untidy bunch of no-account hoodlums of various shapes, sizes, and dispositions. *Some* spammers might be dissuaded by a DDoS campaign, but since DDoS and spam are only marginally different (i.e. they're both floods of useless crap data that drastically reduce your efficiency), I really doubt it's going to have much impact overall. In any case, even assuming some best case scenario where the DDoS actually targets the right computers (it won't) and the spammers have a miraculous Grinch-style change of heart (they won't), there's still this basic problem: there's always a fresh crop of young teenagers who can send out boatloads more spam as an effective DDoS/annoyance/way-to-get-back-at-the whole-world.
So... I really don't think DDoSing spammers is a good idea. It's just a modern form of childish vigilante-ism and one that I don't expect to be particularly effective.
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