A Telstra spokesperson confirmed in a statement to ZDNet Australia that BigPond was disabling "increasing--but still small--numbers of customers for violations of our acceptable usage policies," in line with a tightening of policies in relation to spam.
"We are determined to send a very clear message to spammers that they will be dealt with if they try to use our network to harass our customers," the spokesperson said. However, she declined to reveal the exact number of accounts disabled as a result of breaches.
The telecommunications carrier is understood to have put together an internal taskforce, comprising staff from its product management, commercial and business operations, to implement new measures to protect its customer base from spam. The head of BigPond broadband, Justin Milne, is heading the taskforce.
The new "get-tough" stance secured added impetus in early March when the carrier moved to terminate several BigPond accounts and signaled a more aggressive anti-spam policy to avert the threat of being excluded from global newsgroup communities due to large volumes of junk e-mail being sent via BigPond news servers.
It is understood measures to be introduced in a month to six weeks are based on tightening management of the abuse cues--the conduit for customers to report abuse of their accounts--to deliver a more immediate and decisive response.
The spokesperson said under the carrier's existing spam management system, if BigPond mail servers identify a heavy load from a specific IP address, "they will throttle the rate of e-mails coming from that IP address.
"While this does not completely prevent spam, it reduces the impact of spamming, as it hinders the spam delivery process.
"Also, BigPond has installed on its broadband Newsgroup server software that looks for multiple postings from a single IP address.
"If multiple postings exceed defined thresholds, the messages are blocked".
The spokesperson said BigPond sought to prevent spamming from its standard services by having defined thresholds for the number of messages that can be sent within a set time period.
However, BigPond was most vulnerable to spamming from Open Relays, which, in their simplest form, are mail servers that allow anyone on the Internet to forward e-mails through them.
"Some BigPond customers elect to run their own mail server software, but do not configure that software to prevent spamming," the spokesperson said.
"When spammers use a BigPond customer's open mail relay, it appears that spam comes from the BigPond network.
"BigPond actively monitors the network and scans for open mail relays on a daily basis. Once found, customers are advised to immediately close these relays and if this is not completed within 30 minutes of notification, Telstra takes further action".
Meanwhile, Telstra has moved to boost sales of its ADSL broadband self-install kit in partnership with heavyweight retailer Harvey Norman, which used television advertising on major networks to promote the kit.
The operator said it received 300 calls following the airing of the ads, boosting a service already benefiting from 20,000 new broadband orders in March.
According to Telstra, BigPond broadband to date has more than 200,000 customers using its ADSL, cable and satellite networks.
However, BigPond declined to comment on any plans it had regarding the easing of download limits for users amidst a climate of increasingly competitive offerings from rival ISPs.
Interesting feedback re Telstras Actions.
Topic: Telstra Australia Playing BIG Brother
04-13-2003 03:49 AM | Edit | Quote | Profile | Search |
Resolute
New owner of GFY
Registered: Feb 2003
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Interesting article re Telsta, Australias largest Telco Playing BIG brother.
Substancially restrestricting access to newsgroups and e mail marketing
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/se...20273650,00.htm
They still want their $$'s at the end of the month but offer less for it !!!!
Other Aussie webmasters view of this article most welcomed.
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04-13-2003 04:16 AM | Edit | Quote | Profile | Search |
Resolute
New owner of GFY
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I really object to restricting access to the net in any way
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04-13-2003 05:24 AM | Edit | Quote | Profile | Search |
rowan
Why does my mouse have brown stains?
Registered: Mar 2002
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From what I understand in this article, they're clamping down on spam. Why is that a problem? Are you a spammer?
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04-13-2003 05:29 AM | Edit | Quote | Profile | Search |
chupacabra
...foaming at the crotch.
Registered: Sep 2002
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huh... back when i used to bother w/ the erotica binary newsgroups a couple of years back, some of the heaviest spammers for binary posts were on bigpond subnets. i even remember writing a few abuse complaints to their abuse department. nice to actually see an ISP take steps to curtail rampant spamming through their service, i bet bigpond has been threatened by their own upstream provider over said spammers..
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04-13-2003 10:13 AM | Edit | Quote | Profile | Search |
Resolute
New owner of GFY
Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:
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Originally posted by chupacabra
huh... back when i used to bother w/ the erotica binary newsgroups a couple of years back, some of the heaviest spammers for binary posts were on bigpond subnets. i even remember writing a few abuse complaints to their abuse department. nice to actually see an ISP take steps to curtail rampant spamming through their service, i bet bigpond has been threatened by their own upstream provider over said spammers..
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I am not a spammer just want the ability to post to the newsgroups and I cant !!! This Sucks !!
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04-13-2003 10:17 AM | Edit | Quote | Profile | Search |
chupacabra
...foaming at the crotch.
Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:
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I am not a spammer just want the ability to post to the newsgroups and I cant !!! This Sucks !!
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never said you were Resolute... just an observation that Bigpond has had a history of letting many spammers run rampant, and that it looks like they finally got smacked hard enough over it to force their hand to do something about it. spammers ruin things up for others often online, this is just another example..
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04-13-2003 12:13 PM | Edit | Quote | Profile | WWW | Search |
HairToStay
My girlfriend is a dialer
Registered: Oct 2002
Location: Cape Cod, Mass.
Posts: 85
I think they need to secure their routers before they worry about spam. They're very well known for their lack of security and abundance of compromised IPs
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