Student - October 2, 2008

Spam filter in overdrive

The ICT Department of Wageningen UR has tightened its spam filter several times in the past few months as a defense against spam attacks. But the new filter is functioning too well. Ordinary e-mail is occasionally rejected, confirms the department.

We cannot solve the problems by loosening the spam filter somewhat, says Jaap Booij, security manager ICT. That not only would lead to nuisance, but also to the risk of being abused as a sender of spam. Wageningen UR may then end up blacklisted in important spam filters.
As a solution, ICT is currently considering a technical adjustment to the infrastructure, as a result of which the sender will be notified when his or her mail was destroyed by the spam filter. That will, however, be a costly intervention, according to Booij.