South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
Summary: South Korea is considering a nation wide block of port 25, as a anti-spam countermeasure aiming to reduce the volumes of spam affecting the country.
South Korea is considering a nation wide block of port 25, as a anti-spam countermeasure aiming to reduce the volumes of spam affecting the country.
The ban, set to go in effect as of December, will replace port 25 with port 587 and 465 for SMTPS.
Why is this initiative prone to fail?
Mostly because of the way modern malware and spam networks operate. For instance, modern malware has built-in SMTP engines that are port-independent. Moreover, geolocated and malware-infected hosts within South Korea could be automatically updated using the new specs in a matter of seconds, once again continuing the abuse of legitimate networks, while playing by the newly introduced rules.
Spamming through web-based email is yet another way for cybercriminals to bypass the newly introduced regulations. Once the CAPTCHA-solving process for popular free web-based email providers has been outsourced to Indian providers of CAPTCHA-solving services, thousands of newly registered emails will be automatically used for outgoing spamming purposes, once again successfully bypassing the newly introduced regulation.
What do you think? Would the blocking of port 25 reduce the levels of spam significantly, or is the initiative prone to fail?
Talkback.
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Talkback
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
If spammers had to pay for the services they use, and those services were promptly disabled when spam was reported, it would very soon become much less lucrative.
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
You can frustrate spammers by limiting them to a couple dozen outgoing emails [i]per hour[/i]. They're trying to move millions of them.
:)
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
How can they do that?
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
However, it will mean that any new spam attacks will now have to check two ports depending on where it is in the world. Which will mean an increase in traffic across the Internet and potentially causing more harm than good.
Irony
Kinda all seems hopeless.
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
So ??? to summarize it ??? Korean project definitely has a strong ground to succeed and ??? as the authors of the similar, succesful one ??? we wish them all the best.
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
Thanks for that feedback, very interesting to have experience over speculation.
However, just to follow up, how DID people get around these potentially job impairing issues?
- Were small companies able to keep their own mail servers up and running?
- Were remote [home] workers able to still securely connect to their work network?
- Was there issues that had to be accommodated?
- Did you simply let those who had an issue leave and find a different provider?
In short, what were the biggest difficulties faced by the end user, and how were they overcome?
Many thanks!
RE: South Korea to block port 25 as anti-spam countermeasure
Happy New Year everyone :)