blacklisting by SORBS

[Scot L. Harris]

On Tue, 2005-08-16 at 10:36, Thomas Cameron wrote:
> > This is not strictly a Fedora question, but I would like to query the list
> > on
> > this since it's such a large user base. Recently, our ISP has been added
> > to
> > the SORBS blacklist as a source of spam. We're being told that SORBS is
> > demanding money from our ISP to remove them from the list. I can't speak
> > to
> > whether the ISP is or is not a source of large amounts of spam, though it
> > seems unlikely, since they are in the Washington, DC area, and have many
> > government agencies as clients. Two questions: Is anyone else having
> > questionable issues with SORBS? Does it sound like extortion for such a
> > service to be asking for money from an ISP to remove them from such a
> > list?
> 
> I call bull on that.  That type of crap is what makes spam-fighters look
> like jerks.  The whole "you happen to be on the same ISP as a spammer so
> you're being punished" argument is pure, unadulterated fertilizer.  That's
> like saying "well, your little girl was in the same city as the bad guys,
> so it's just too bad that she got her legs blown off in the cross-fire."
> 
> According to the SORBS web site (http://www.us.sorbs.net/overview.shtml)
> they are looking for a $50 "donation" - what a load of crap.
> 
> If there is someone spamming at a certain address, I say absolutely
> blocklist the heck out of them.  But if that ip address is not being used
> to spam any more, then demanding money to delist the address is extortion.
> 
> Thomas

This is why blacklisting has a bad reputation and why admins should not
use third party blacklists.  There are many examples of blacklist
maintainers becoming over zealous in listing address ranges and stunts
like the OP related.  Locally administered blacklists can be effective
but it never made much sense to me to turn over control of any of my
critical email services to a third party. 

The vast bulk of spam can be blocked using a combination of greylisting
and spamassassin.  These are not controlled by any central authority so
there is no chance of a central authority causing problems.  

Check if your ISP can move you to another address block or get the
recipients of your email to stop using SORBS.