NEWS Microsoft has debuted its MSN Postmaster website, which offers tools and services designed to combat spam.
MSN Postmaster marks the software giant's latest effort to increase its presence in the security arena, a lucrative area that has attracted a large swathe of competitors.
Postmaster is an online resource that offers tools to help internet service providers (ISPs), email service providers and legitimate bulk emailers combat junk email, streamline the reporting process for spam and assist in delivering legitimate bulk email to MSN Hotmail users.
It will also include the software giant's new Smart Network Data Services, which will provide reports on the types of email being sent to MSN Hotmail accounts. The tracking service will inform ISPs of the volume of email being sent from their IP address to MSN Hotmail users and the percentage of it tagged as spam - either by Hotmail filters or by the user themselves.
With that information, ISPs can identify and clean compromised PCs and question bulk emailers to determine whether they are spammers.
Kevin Doerr, product unit manager for MSN Hotmail, said in a statement: "MSN Postmaster and Smart Network Data Services represent a move by Microsoft toward broader, more comprehensive and transparent information-sharing with ISPs and email senders."
Security experts say ISPs are reluctant to shut down customers' accounts, even if they appear to be inadvertently pumping out spam. For ISPs, shutting down a customer's account means lost revenue while they try to determine whether or not the email their customer is distributing is legitimate.
Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com
Comments
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1. Geoffrey Darnton
Why not make Windows a 'real' operating system instead? ... and why do HP not put VMS on the desktop? ....
The spam problem (and a lot of other ills such as applications crashing the operating system, security flaws, etc) arise, in my humble view, as a direct consequence of the architecture of Windows not handling memory management properly. Windows started life as a single machine operating system. Its evolution has been slow and painful. Emulate VMS by introducing memory management with multiple levels such as kernel, executive, supservisor and user modes - then a PC could not be hijacked to send out spam, reveal its secrets, etc. The fundamental problem is that the Windows almost monopoly is seriously inhibiting the implementation of real security on the desktop (of course, some government security agencies would find real security on the desktop very inconvenient!). I understood Microsoft hired Dave Cutler - did they/ If they did, why didn't they use his ideals and implement a properly secure operating system operating in multi-user networked environments? ... and Linux could learn a few things about this as well....
2. Dan M
Spam happens because of a fundamental weakness in the SMTP protocol - nothing to do with Microsoft.
There *are* security flaws in the Windows platform, which, I believe, Microsoft are working hard to eradicate. As well as this, they are really trying to educate the general public on issues such as basic security and are offering lots of free tools to help.
Of course Windows PC's will be hijacked and used as spam relays because of the market penetration they enjoy. But to blame the whole problem of spam on Microsoft is churlish in the extreme.
3. anonymous
Mr Darnton - it would serve you to read a book on Windows OS architecture.
4. David MacQuigg
Microsoft could stop the zombies, but they don't want to give away the security patches for free. At least that is my non-expert understanding of the situation, so tell me if I am wrong. Most of the zombies are running out-of-date bootleg MS operating systems. Microsoft apparently feels that the benefit of stopping the zombies is not worth the loss of sales they would suffer by making the bootleg systems more secure, and thus less likely to be upgraded to a properly-licensed OS. Mr. Gates, the people hurt by this policy are not the bootleggers, but the entire Internet community that has to deal with spam from your systems.