Re: SORBS on autopilot?

[Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org>]

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 11:11:13AM -0800, Michael Thomas wrote:
> > Blocking generic and residential addresses is the single most effective
> > thing we've ever done to reduce spam.
>
> Really? You mean that if you stopped doing this you'd have trillions,
> or quadrillions of spams per day instead now? I'm skeptical.

The original statement is accurate, and becomes nearly an absolute
if qualified with the addition of "...from zombies".  This is common
knowledge among everyone with sufficient $clue in the field, and has
been for most of the past decade.  Remaining research/discussion/debate
is now focused on how best to enumerate such space, either by PTR or
by allocation.  Given that the zombie population continues to monotonically
increase with no sign that the trend will reverse, and given that precious
few owner/operators of such space have taken appropriate, timely and
effective actions to staunch the flow of outbound abuse from the zombies
within their operations, it seems reasonable that this tactic will
remain extremely useful into the forseeable future.

Once again, I direct those interested to the spam-l list (and its archives)
where copious discussion on these points may be found, and is much more
on-topic than here on NANOG.

---Rsk