Verizon's Anti-Spam Results in Collateral Damage

Verizon claims it hasn't had any major shifts in it's anti-spam policy. They say are only responding to data about where spam originates from. They then selectively shut down access from those networks in an effort to stop junk email.

The problem with this policy is that increasingly spam is being sent from just about every major network. This is the result of millions of "zombified" PC's that have been infected with malware.

This malware can respond to spammer's commands remotely - effectively making any infected PC a spam-sending outpost for them.

ISP's have been under increasingly pressure to fight spam in recent years, and have been resorting to more radical action. I've seen many cases where companies have possibly lost critical e-mail due to it not getting past a server-side spam email filters.

The best compromise would be for ISPs to allow users to set their degree of spam filtering.

There are some networks that send virtually nothing but spam - which could be blocked at the router. Many, many networks and servers fall into a gray area. They send more spam than normal - but they also host legitimate users.

My advice to users is to find an ISP that uses "conservative" server-side filters, then use client-side anti-spam programs like SpamButcher to catch the rest.

With client-side email spam blockers, you can always setup your own rules and review intercepted messages for any you might actually want.

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