Re: [fw-wiz] The home user problem returns

From: Mason Schmitt (mason_at_schmitt.ca)
Date: 09/13/05

  • Next message: Mason Schmitt: "Re: [fw-wiz] The home user problem returns" 
    To: Brian Loe <knobdy@stjoelive.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 15:21:18 -0700

    Brian Loe wrote:
    >>While I think that user ed is still a critical piece to the
    >>puzzle, I think that the way that we go about attempting to
    >>educate needs to change. That's what I was trying to get
    >>across in my last email. It takes one on one interaction with people.
    >
    >
    > If Ed WANTS to learn, he'll learn. If Ed wants his porn, you're annoying
    > him, go away.

    That's completely true. No argument here at all.

    > Why has spam control become the responsibility of the ISP? Unless it's
    > originating from your network - and you have specifically disallowed such
    > usage on your network via contractual agreements between you and the
    > customer - why do you care how much spam your customers get? Only as an
    > add-on service should an ISP be involved.

    Haven't you heard? Spam is a global problem. Many of the means of
    dealing with spam involve voluntary cooperation from as many people as
    possible to combat the problem. That cooperation entails such things as
    outbound port 25 blocks at ISPs.

    As for the recipient of the spam. Most ISPs now do a basic level of
    inbound spam filtration, just to ease the load on their mail servers,
    let alone appease angry customers. Most ISPs also offer a subscription
    anti-spam service to those that want it. If you don't want to subscribe
    to the anti-spam service, I assure you that there is still tons left
    over after the ISP's basic filtering- you'll get all the spam you handle.

    > I guess I'm still confused. What issues are you having because of your
    > customer's lack of security? Loss of bandwidth? Attacks on your internal
    > network? What, exactly, is the result of your customers being bad?

    I'll give you some examples in a sec, but first, since we are tossing
    quotes around, here's one for you, "An ounce of prevention is worth a
    pound of cure". I know that I have to do my part and hope that others
    do theirs. As a result the problem will diminish overall.

    Here's an example that's not related to Internet access and bandwidth.
    In North America (and starting to become a problem in most developed
    nations), smoking is becoming a huge problem. Smoking is known to be
    linked to many forms of cancer, birth defects, gum disease, many
    respiratory diseases, etc, etc. - it's a really long list. Some people
    consider smoking to be a personal choice, so lets run with that. My
    first argument pertains more to Canada and other countries that have
    public medical systems.

    When enough people choose to smoke, they are placing an unnecessary
    burden on the public medical system, thereby degrading it for everyone else.

    You may be one of those militant smokers that feels it is their right to
    smoke wherever they please. If you decide you want to smoke in public,
    you may be smoking next to someone that is an asthmatic. It's well
    known that second hand smoke is just as deadly, if not more so, than the
    smoke you pull through your filter - if you and other militant smokers
    get their way, non smokers are now suffering the same health problems
    that are common amongst smokers. Other people may be enjoying the fresh
    air or a good meal and you are denying them that. The effect can even
    be as simple as making someone else's clothes stink. No matter how you
    look at it, this is more than just your problem - you are involving
    other people that may not want to have anything to do with you.

    I promised I'd give you an example relating to your use of your Internet
    connection. Here's one really good example for you.

    Recently a bot found it's way onto a customer's computer. That bot
    setup shop and began to send spam... through our not-so-smart smarthost.
     The bot was also a worm and it started spewing like crazy trying to
    find more hosts - it found some on our network and would have found some
    out on the net if I hadn't put egress filters in place on our router a
    year or two ago.

    I got called into work outside normal hours to track down the bot, our
    support people had to call the customer to let them know and they also
    turned of the customer's modem until the infection was cleaned out.
    They then had to start calling other customers and doing the same.

    In the short time that the spam was flowing, our mail server managed to
    find it's way onto a couple blacklists. As a result, customers that
    didn't get the worm were still being affected because some of their
    email bounced due to other mail admins using the blacklists that we
    ended up on. This in turn generated support calls.

    I then kicked myself for not having implemented rate limiting and really
    basic spam filtering on our outbound smtp relay like I had planned to
    and set about working out how I was going to do that. It turns out that
    it not feasible with our current solution, so this week I'm working on
    building a new mail server that will allow me to do the egress filtering
    I need to do.

    All in all, the fact that there weren't more safe guards in place cost
    us time and money and affected a fair number of customers. It has also
    pulled me away from other important work and thus I get further behind.

    If that doesn't paint a clear enough picture of why you should not be
    able to have a wide open un-restricted pipe of your own, let me know and
    I'll give you some more examples. 

    --
Mason
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