UConn Advance - February 21, 2006 - New system to fight spam

Enough is enough, says Michael Kerntke, the University’s associate vice president and chief information officer: The spamming of UConn must end.

“We’re getting so much spam that our servers are having a hard time handling it,” he says. “So we intend to install an industrial-strength appliance” that can block spam before it even reaches UConn’s servers.

Spam – unwanted e-mail – comes early and often. In fact, by the time many UConn employees settle into their morning routines and check their e-mail, instances of spam can number in the dozens. There are even more if the person has been away for several days. Kerntke says incoming spam has topped 500 items per minute on many occasions.

System administrators at University Information Technology Services (UITS) installed spam trigger software in 2003, but the volume of unwanted e-mail has since overwhelmed the utility. The new tools available, however, are better able to stop spam and also are inexpensive, he says.

UITS staff are currently working to acquire the product, and expect purchase and installation to be completed before the semester ends.

The spam comes in many forms, buried among the more than 400,000 e-mails that come into UConn every day.

The subjects of the spam are familiar to any user of e-mail: Viagra and Cialis, stock tips, cheap “Rolex” watches, and various body “enhancement” options.

And, of course, the impoverished entrepreneur who, for a small amount of financial backing, will cut you into the millions he will make when his new product hits the stores.

Kerntke and Paul Desmarais, manager of server support and a lead programmer in the anti-spam effort, say the battle between spammers and computer system operators is escalating.

It’s similar to the battle among computer hackers and administrators – but the hackers are starting to lose the war and, Desmarais says, the spammers will, too.

“As more people and companies take an aggressive stance against it, spam won’t carry as much of a payback for data harvesting or inventing new ways to evade the appliances,” Desmarais says.

Once a new system is installed, Kerntke says, it will be possible to tag spam and/or block it.

“The device will be configued to allow us to identify messages with two levels of certainty that a message is spam. The device will block, or simply discard, messages with the higher level of certainty,” Kerntke says.

Initially, all e-mail (including highly certain spam) will continue to be sent to faculty, staff, and students with the usual {spam?} flag.

A list of frequently asked questions will be distributed explaining the new system, and the flagging and delivery of messages will continue until there is a “comfort level” among UConn students and staff that the appliance is not tagging real e-mail – “ham, rather than spam,” says Demarais.

“One person’s spam is another person’s mail.”

“Once everybody is comfortable with that level of scrutiny,” Kerntke says, “we will work with our user community to establish a date to begin refusing delivery of messages that are tagged at the highest level of certainty that they contain spam.

At that point, only messages with the lower level of certainty will be delivered.

Feedback from our customers will again let system administrators know how well the appliance is performing in identifying messages containing spam.

“We intend to work with the community every step of the way,” says Kerntke.

Once the system is in place and the volume of mail coming into UConn is reduced, regular e-mail will be delivered on a more timely basis, Desmarais says.

And, Kerntke adds, savings will be identified quickly in increased productivity, less time spent at UITS seeking ways to block spam, and reduced disc storage.

New system to fight spam

by Richard Veilleux - February 21, 2006