[vox] spam question

Tue Apr 15 12:47:52 PDT 2008

Hey all,

As I'm sure is the case with many of you who run your
own Internet-connected servers w/ Linux, I get a lot
of spam relay attempts. I have configured my postfix
to avoid the open relay problem and I have yet to see
anything in the logs which suggests that any of these
attempts have succeeded.  

I get an average of 3-4 failed spam attempts each day.
The overwhelming majority come from China or Korea,
though I do sometimes see other types of failed
attacks (mod_proxy, etc) from Europe and other parts
of the world.

Sometimes I do a WHOIS on the originating IP address,
and among other information it returns an email
address along the lines of "report spam to
abuse@<hostname>.com."

My question: How often (or do you?) take the time to
report spam relay, mod_proxy, or crack attempts to the
address provided? And if you do complain, what exactly
do you send them? A snippet of your log entry? Would
there be any additional security concerns raised by
providing the offending ISP with your own hostname or
IP address?

Or do you believe that the ISP's admin is himself
responsible in many of these cases and that
complaining would therefore be futile?

Your thoughts, please.

Thanks, Matt

--- vox-request at lists.lugod.org wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. Fwd: [OT] new phishing, was: Subpoena in case
> #50-559-KLH
>       (Bill Kendrick)
>    2. Re: [LUGOD] Library (Don Armstrong)
>    3. Graduate degree at UCD...? (Don W)
> 
> 
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:18:57 -0700
> From: Bill Kendrick <nbs at sonic.net>
> Subject: [vox] Fwd: [OT] new phishing, was: Subpoena
> in case
> 	#50-559-KLH
> To: LUGOD <vox at lists.lugod.org>
> Cc: Larry Ozeran <lozeran at clinicalinformatics.com>
> Message-ID: <20080414221857.GA22953 at sonic.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> 
> Larry tried to post this to 'vox' from a
> non-subscribed address, so I'm
> forwarding it to the list on his behalf.
> 
> -bill!
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from
> vox-bounces at lists.lugod.org -----
> 
> The attached message has been automatically
> discarded.
> Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:42:05 -0700
> From: "Larry Ozeran"
> <lozeran at clinicalinformatics.com>
> Subject: [OT] new phishing, was: Subpoena in case
> #50-559-KLH
> To: "vox" <vox at lists.lugod.org>
> Reply-To: lozeran at clinicalinformatics.com
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Though this is not an open source issue, I thought
> this would be of interest to some on the list. I
> received this email earlier today. It is very
> serious-looking, but clearly fraudulent. It is not
> legal to subpoena by email and there are typos in
> the bottom sentences. It appears close enough to
> legitimate that some people might be tempted to
> click the link (which I have not done) to find out
> what it is about or enter personal information. A
> lawyer suggested I forward to the California Dept of
> Justice and the State Bar, which I have done. Is
> there a group in the IT community that should be
> notified? This is the first time I have seen or
> heard of this type of scam.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Larry
> 
> ----- End forwarded message -----
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:42:30 -0700
> From: Don Armstrong <don at donarmstrong.com>
> Subject: Re: [vox] [LUGOD] Library
> To: vox at lists.lugod.org
> Message-ID:
> <20080415094230.GQ3694 at volo.donarmstrong.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
> 
> On Mon, 24 Mar 2008, Jim Lowman wrote:
> > The attitude of the library staff doesn't surprise
> me. Since I'd
> > gone to UCR for three certifications (one in
> Unix/Linux) I was going
> > to donate a number of books to the Science
> Library. They had a
> > ho-hum attitude toward the donation, yet they had
> a lousy selection
> > of books on computing in their collection; at
> least at the time that
> > I made the offer.
> 
> Yeah, that's generally because librarians don't
> always know enough
> about different subject areas. [A lot of our (UCR's)
> collection is
> based on lists of books that faculty tells the
> library to get.]
>  
> Also, in UCR (and most of the UC's) cases, we have
> almost all of the
> useful general-consumption computing books available
> on campus
> electronically anyway, so there's really no point in
> wasting shelf
> space on them.
> 
> 
> Don Armstrong
> 
> -- 
> Grimble left his mother in the food store and went
> to the launderette
> and watched the clothes go round. It was a bit like
> colour television
> only with less plot.
>  -- Clement Freud _Grimble_
> 
> http://www.donarmstrong.com             
> http://rzlab.ucr.edu
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:57:37 -0700
> From: "Don W" <don.werve at gmail.com>
> Subject: [vox] Graduate degree at UCD...?
> To: vox at lists.lugod.org
> Message-ID:
> 
>
<de2dc0990804151057j2a5d54a6j764e14842348d5af at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> Are there any current UCD graduate students who
> participate in this
> list?  I'm looking at applying for graduate school
> in the near future,
> and since Davis is close (and a rather nice town),
> it's the obvious
> top choice for me.  That said, it would be nice to
> talk to someone who
> is currently in the program, just to get a feel for
> things.
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> vox mailing list
> vox at lists.lugod.org
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> 
> 
> End of vox Digest, Vol 47, Issue 9
> **********************************
> 

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