Slamming Spam: A Guide for System Administrators

Slamming Spam: A Guide for System Administrators

by Dale Nielsen, Robert Haskins
Released December 2004
Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 9780131467163

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Book description

Real Anti-Spam Help for System Administrators

In Slamming Spam, two spam fighters show you how to fight back—and win. Unlike most spam books, this one is written specifically for in-the-trenches system administrators: professionals who need hands-on solutions for detecting, managing, and deterring spam in Unix/Linux and/or Microsoft Windows environments.

The authors offer deep, administrator-focused coverage of the most valuable open-source tools for reducing spam's impact in the enterprise—especially SpamAssassin. Drawing on their extensive experience in developing and implementing anti-spam tools, the authors present expert insights into every leading approach to fighting spam, including Bayesian filtering, distributed checksum filtering, and email client filtering.

Coverage includes

  • Step-by-step junk mail filtering with Procmail

  • Protecting Sendmail, Postfix, qmail, Microsoft Exchange, and Lotus Domino servers from spam

  • Making the most of native MTA anti-spam features, including whitelists/blacklists, DNS black hole services, and header checking

  • Distributed checksum filtering solutions, including Vipul's Razor and Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse

  • McAfee SpamKiller for Lotus Domino

  • McAfee SpamKiller for Microsoft Exchange

  • Implementing and managing SpamAssassin

  • Implementing SMTP AUTH, providing effective outbound SMTP authentication and relaying with any mail client; and STARTTLS, encrypting outbound mail content, user names, and passwords

  • Sender verification techniques, including challenge/response, special use addresses, and sender compute

  • Anti-spam solutions for Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla Messenger, and Unix mail clients

    • Whatever your IT environment and mail platform, Slamming Spam's defense in-depth strategies can help you dramatically reduce spam and all its attendant costs—IT staff time, network/computing resources, and user productivity.

    © Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

    Table of contents

    1. Copyright
    2. About the Author
    3. Preface
    4. Introduction
      1. Email Terminology
      2. Inbound Versus Outbound Spam
      3. (Mis)Classifications and Sidelining
      4. Fundamental Anti-Spam Techniques
      5. Other Anti-Spam Methods
      6. Designing an Anti-Spam Architecture
      7. Anti-Spam Design Notes
      8. Example Configurations
      9. Conclusion
    5. Procmail
      1. Installation
      2. Invoking procmail
      3. Delivery Agent Invocation
      4. Configuration
      5. Conclusion
    6. SpamAssassin
      1. SpamAssassin and MTA Integration
      2. Installing SpamAssassin
      3. SpamAssassin Scoring
      4. SpamAssassin Configuration
      5. Verifying SpamAssassin Operation
      6. SpamAssassin Configuration Files
      7. Administrator-Only Settings
      8. Conclusion
    7. Native MTA Anti-Spam Features
      1. Static Filters
      2. Sendmail
      3. Postfix
      4. Optional MTA Configuration Changes
      5. Conclusion
    8. SMTP AUTH and STARTTLS
      1. STARTTLS and MTAs
      2. Conclusion
    9. Distributed Checksum Filtering
      1. Vipul’s Razor
      2. Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse
      3. Conclusion
    10. Introduction to Bayesian Filtering
      1. The Math
      2. Word Analysis
      3. Word Choice
      4. Training
      5. Efficacy and Attacks
      6. Other Bayesian Filtering Packages
      7. Advanced Techniques: Tokenization
      8. Advanced Techniques: Cleverer Statistics
      9. Conclusion
      10. References
    11. Bayesian Filtering
      1. How to Choose a Bayesian Analyzer
      2. How We Chose the Bayesian Analyzers
      3. CRM114
      4. ASSP
    12. Email Client Filtering
      1. To Filter or Not to Filter
      2. POPFile
      3. Mozilla Messenger
      4. Microsoft Outlook Express
      5. Microsoft Outlook
      6. Conclusion
    13. Microsoft Exchange
      1. Intelligent Message Filter
      2. Incoming Message Filtering
      3. Outbound Message Control
      4. McAfee SpamKiller for Exchange
      5. Conclusion
    14. Lotus Domino and Lotus Notes
      1. Lotus Domino
      2. Lotus Notes
      3. McAfee SpamKiller for Lotus Domino v2.1
      4. SMTP AUTH and STARTTLS
      5. Conclusion
    15. Sender Verification
      1. Sender Verification Background
      2. Installing Python
      3. Camram
      4. Active Spam Killer
      5. Tagged Message Delivery Agent
      6. Conclusion
    16. Sender Policy Framework
      1. How SPF Works
      2. Publishing SPF Records
      3. Enforcing SPF Records
    17. Reporting Spam
      1. Reading an Email Header
    18. Default SpamAssassin Ruleset
      1. Area Tested
      2. Locale
      3. Description of Test
      4. Test Name
      5. Default Scores Assigned
      6. Sample Rules
    19. SpamAssassin Command Line Interface Reference
      1. SpamAssassin Command Options
      2. spamd
      3. spamc
    20. SpamAssassin Configuration File
      1. Privileged Settings
      2. General Settings
      3. Whitelist/Blacklist Options
      4. Bayesian
      5. Network Tests
      6. Ruleset and Scoring
      7. Tags
    21. DSPAM
      1. Sidelining Versus Tagging
      2. Installation
    22. References
      1. Introduction (Chapter 1)
      2. Procmail (Chapter 2)
      3. SpamAssassin (Chapter 3)
      4. Native MTA Anti-Spam Features (Chapter 4)
      5. Smtp Auth and Starttls (Chapter 5)
      6. Distributed Checksum Filtering (Chapter 6)
      7. Introduction to Bayesian Theory (Chapter 7)
      8. Bayesian Filtering (Chapter 8)
      9. Email Client Filtering (Chapter 9)
      10. Microsoft Exchange (Chapter 10)
      11. Lotus Domino and Lotus Notes (Chapter 11)
      12. Sender Verification (Chapter 12)
      13. Sender Policy Framework (Appendix A)
      14. Reporting Spam (Appendix B)
      15. Dspam (Appendix F)
    23. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Slamming Spam: A Guide for System Administrators
    • Author(s): Dale Nielsen, Robert Haskins
    • Release date: December 2004
    • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
    • ISBN: 9780131467163