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by Paul Kerstein

ISPs Better at Blocking Spam

News
Nov 29, 20051 min
CSO and CISOData and Information Security

A new study by the Federal Trade Commissionout this week suggests that Internet service providers are filteringspam even as purveyors of unsolicited e-mail continue to illegally”harvest” e-mail addresses posted on the web. Though the sample sizewas small — FTC staff created new e-mail addresses and tested resultsat two popular ISPs — the results showed that the ISPs blocked 95percent and 86 percent of the spam intended for the e-mail inboxes. TheFTC notes that “consumers who must post their e-mail address onwebsites can substantially reduce the risk of harvesting by maskingtheir addresses.”