[Cadre-politics] SPF and MAILER-DAEMON backscatter

[Josh Harding]

Any excuse for SMTP Auth up and running is a good one for me :).

-Josh

On 6/3/06, Dan MacNeil <omacneil at cs.uml.edu> wrote:
>
>
> SPF or Sender Permitted Framework is a spec for DNS TXT records that says
> what mail servers are allowed to send email on your behalf.
>
> For example
>
>         earth.cs.uml.edu is authorized to send mail for
>         the cs.uml.edu domain
>
> and:
>
>         spankme.monkeyboy.spam.ro
>
> ...is not.
>
>
> The advantages for us are:
>
>         people checking SPF record (like the CSL) won't accept and
>         backscatter/bounce spam/virus/phish from us.
>
>         Verizon, AOL, Comcast, Joe's ISP of Spanish Fork UT
>         will all be less like to score our mail as SPAM
>
>         We can join the tens of thousands in the in crowd.
>
> I know the #2 is true because of chatter on the anti-spam listservs
> and because verizon asked "are you using SPF?" when I went to get one
> of our IP# de-blacklisted. (thanks Gregg)
>
> The disadvantages are:
>
>         We need to setup SMTP AUTH on a box and have people
>         send their mail through that box.
>
>         sites like hallmark.com that send mail on behalf of people will
> break.
>
> There are more details at:
>
>         http://openspf.org/
>
> As part of our improved SPAM filtering, I figure to implement SPF for the
> thecsl.org, brave.cs.uml.edu and the lists.*.org domains we maintain this
> summer. (We @CSL are already using SPF info published by other people to
> filter SPAM)
>
> As a side benefit we can lop a few % off the tech support calls. "use
> smtp.thecsl.org for your outgoing server is easier than "use your ISP's
> smtp server, it's probably something like smtp.comcast.net "
>
> --
>
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