Jul 31 2007
Network Security Podcast, Episode 71
Getting ready for the next week of conventions, with the end of Black Hat, all of Defcon and Linux World next week. If you’re at any of these events, look me up, though I’m already pretty booked for the entire week. I think I have some time still free Saturday and Sunday night, but I’m sure those will fill up once I get to the event. Some day I’m going to do a blooper show of all the mistakes I make while recording a podcast; there was a lot of editing to do tonight.
Show Notes:
- Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2007-27 - Upgrade to Firefox 2.0.0.6 if you haven’t already
- ICANN wants your feedback on registrar reform - Here’s your chance to comment.
- ICANN starts consultation on how to protect registrants
- CA releases results of Red-team investigation of Voting machines : All three systems could be compromised
- California Study: Voting machines vulnerable; worse to come? - Ed Felten highlights the red-team report
- Ten things your IT department won’t tell you - And for good reason; they could get you fired!
- Tonight’s music: Hell of a Boy by the Lascivious Biddies
Network Security Podcast, Episode 71
Time: 21:07
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
I looked at my gmail tonight. I don’t use it for correspondence at present, but it’s my contact for almost all my on-line shopping, banking, or register-to-comment activities, because its spam filtering has been good.
I get very little spam past the filters. I currently show 848 spams in the junk folder, which I guess is about a months’ worth. I have long since given up looking through spam folders for false positives because there’s just too much. But in response to Podcast 71, I looked at the newest 400 of the 848 (all I could stand to scan through). I found one false positive, a mail-list newsletter type message. Not bad. I didn’t notice its absence because I don’t follow that newsletter religiously.
On my two main mail accounts, which are ISP hosted and which I access via POP/SMTP (using Forte Agent client software): on the first I get about 800-1000 spams/month. I filter by eye (most of the real mail is diverted to other folders before I look at it, so it’s quick) and the only “false positives” are the occasional few I miss in the pile. The same is true for another account, though I see closer to 400/month. In both cases, the ISPs also provide aggressive spam filtering, and there I have no idea what the statistics are; again, too much spam to look through and I hate web mail interfaces (which I need to use to look at the ISP-filtered spam).
Two other ISPs I get some mail on have much lower numbers of spam messages, but so far gmail is the lowest — if one per week gets by the spam filters that’s a lot. So I would say that gmail’s spam filter is the best I’ve seen so far.
Regards / JBL