Russell Miller

"Originally from Toledo, Ohio, Russell Miller has been a Linux/UNIX Systems Administrator for 10 years. He is also an Open-Source Programmer, having contributed to the KDE project and the Linux kernel, and is the maintainer of two Open-Source projects, Klicker and PacketBL. He is an active member of the spamfighting community, and would think that spammers were one notch above pond-scum, if that were not so insulting to pond scum.

Currently he runs Ladyface Consulting, Inc, a Linux Consultancy and webhosting company out of Agoura Hills, California.

His hobbies are malleting spammers, collecting old computers, playing piano (He has a fairly extensive formal education as a pianist), and he enjoys messing with electronics and geeking out.

He presently lives in Agoura Hills, California with his four zebra finches, who are very happy to consider him an endless source of high-quality seed."

Abstract

• Spam problem
• Overview of spam problem
• Some tricks of spammers
• Why the spam problem is so difficult to address.
• DNS blocklists
• Overview of blocklists
• List the blocklists and discuss their upsides and downsides
• DNS based measures
• SPF
• DomainKeys
• Using sendmail
• Overview of sendmail
• Configuring sendmail to use blocklists
• The upside and downside of catchall addresses
• spamtraps
• using SPF and/or DomainKeys with sendmail
• Using mimedefang
• Overview of mimedefang
• Configuring mimedefang
• Customizing mimedefang-filter
• Using SpamAssassin
• Customizing SpamAssassin
• Using Bayes databases
• Using mimedefang with SpamAssassin
• How mimedefang and SA interact.
• Downsides of using SA with mimedefang
• Using Linux Netfilter to block based on RBLs
• Discussion of PacketBL and other tools.
• Summary and more resources
• Brief discussion of the antispam community
• Question and Answer, if time is available.

Presentation Slides: Openoffice