404 Compliant
404 Compliant Website that has been terminated for spamming. Refers to a Page not found error (404 error).
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Abuse Desk
The department at an ISP which is responsible for handling and acting on net abuse complaints.
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Address Harvester
Specialised browsing software that examines sources of online information for anything that might provide a valid email address.
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Anonymizer Proxy
Service set up to prevent websites from obtaining information such as your e-mail address or your current IP address from your browser.
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APNIC
Asia-Pacific Network Information Center. APNIC registers and maintains the registration information for domains in Asia, Australia, etc.
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ARIN
American Registry of Internet Numbers.
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AUP Acceptable Use Policy
Part of an ISP’s contract with its customers that usually defines what is considered net abuse. AUPs state which activities are allowable and which activities may get your account terminated.
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Auto-Ack
Response from an Autoresponder
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Autoresponder
Program which automatically responds to mail. Commonly used by abuse desks to acknowledge spam complaints.
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Backbone
Primary provider of infrastructure such as trunk lines, dial-ups and cabling for the Internet. The “backbone” providers are the ultimate upstream providers.
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Bandwidth
A measure of data transfer proportional to the amount of data transferred in a given time. Most common measurements seen by users are bits per second (bps). Larger, more complex files require more bandwidth.
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Bayesian Filtering
Bayesian spam filters use a statistical theory developed by English philosopher Thomas Bayes. They calculate the probability of a message being spam, based both on its content and on past results, to separate genuine emails from spam.
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BCC: Field
Blind Carbon Copy field in an e-mail that is normally not visible to the recipients. Used by spammers to conceal their mailing lists.
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Bit Bucket
Electronic trash can for mail servers.
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Black Hat
ISP that is non-responsive to spam complaints.
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Blacklist (or Block List)
A list of outside email addresses not allowed to send messages to the email server.
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Bot
Program used to perform a repetitive task automatically. Most common bots are designed to monitor IRC channels and search webpages or newsgroups for e-mail addresses.
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Bounce
Rejection of mail from the receiving e-mail server.
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CAUCE
Coalition Against Unsolicited E-mail.
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Dejanews
Usenet news posting and archival service. Now known as Deja.com
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Dev/Null
From the UNIX “null device.” Colloquialism for deleting mail (especially to abuse desks) without reading it. See bit bucket.
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DIG (Domain Internet Groper)
Advanced DNS tool that returns all of the available Resource Records for a given domain or host.
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DNS Domain Name System
Locations on the Internet are identified by IP addresses. Allows users to type in domain names by translating domain names into the IP addresses.
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Domain Name
Canonical (simple or registered) name of a given IP address.
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DoS Attack Denial of Service Attacks
Attack on an individual or server that is aimed at preventing normal use of the net. DoS attacks include mailbombing, smurf attacks, etc.
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Drop Box
E-mail address used by a spammer to gather responses to spam.
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Email Header
Every email message consists of two parts, the body and the header. The header can be thought of as the envelope of the message, containing the address of the sender, the recipient, the subject and other information. The body contains the actual text and the attachments. Some header information usually displayed by your email program includes:
- From: – The sender’s name and email address.
- To: – The recipient’s name and email address..
- Date: – The date when the message was sent. .
- Subject: – The subject line.
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Filter
Program which can be configured to allow only data meeting certain criteria to pass.
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Firewall
Security program or programs that protect the system or network from unauthorized use or access.
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Greylist
A list of email addresses that have attempted to send messages, and have been sent a reply asking them for information to confirm that their email is not spam.
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Harvesting
The act of gathering e-mail addresses from newsgroups or websites, usually through the use of a bot.
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IP Spoofing
Forging an IP address of a trusted server into the packets of information sent to a server in place of the real IP address. Because the IP address appears to be that of an authorized sender, the receiving server will act on commands it receives.
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LART
Valuable anti-spammer weapon. Stands for Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool – tool of choice is often a clue-by-four.
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Listwashing
The process of removing email addresses from a mailing list at the request of individuals. This leaves a clean list of people who do not mind receiving messages. This may require the cooperation of ISPs to forward email complaints to companies.
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Mailbombing
Sending a large quantity of e-mail to an address in an attempt to prevent legitimate mail to get through. A form of DoS attack.
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Mailing List
Organized group of users, which have agreed to receive regular mailings on a particular subject. Most legitimate mailing lists will require the subscriber to confirm by responding to an initial e-mail.
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MAPS
Mail Abuse Prevention System
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MX Record
Short for mail exchange record, an entry in a domain name database that identifies the mail server that is responsible for handling e-mails for that domain name. When more than one MX record is entered for any single domain name that is using more than one mail server, the MX record can be prioritized with a preference number that indicates the order in which the mail servers should be used. This enables the use of primary and backup mail servers.
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Open Relay
An email server processing mail where sender and receiver are not local users. Such servers are often open to attack, and are sometimes seized by hackers who use them to send large amounts of spam. An Open Relay Mail Server allows mail to be forwarded from the originating server through it to the destination server.
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Opt-in
Procedure by which users must make a request to be on a mailing list.
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Opt-out
Procedure by which users must make a request not to be on a mailing list.
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ORBS
Open Relay Behaviour-Modification System. Database which tracks SMTP mail servers which permit third party relaying of e-mail. Confirmation that the relay has been used by spammers is not required, making ORBS somewhat controversial. Database can be used as a filter to prevent a mail server from receiving mail from a listed domain.
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POP
Point of Presence. Point of access to the Internet. Commonly associated with modem banks used for dial-up access to an ISP.
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Port
Location for connection to a device. Ports may be physcial, such as a parallel port or logical.
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Port 25
Logical port associated with an SMTP mail server.
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RBL
Realtime Blackhole List. Filtering system that prevents ISPs from receiving mail from listed IP addresses.
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rDNS
Reverse Domain Name System. Provides the domain name for a given IP address.
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Redlist
List of email addresses not contributing to the whitelist, and who are not considered local, even if email is received locally.
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Relay
Forward e-mail through a mail server.
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Relay Check
To test a server to determine if it allows third party relaying
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RIPE
Regional Internet Registry for Europe and surrounding areas.
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Rogue
An Internet Service Provider (ISP) that does not enforce its Terms of Serice Agreement or AUP.
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RRSS
Radparker Relay Spam Stopper – is a list of open email relays which have been used to send spam. Database can be used as a filter to prevent a mail server from receiving mail from a listed domain.
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Spam
Terms that refers to the same thing over and over. Originally applied to massive Usenet crossposting, but now expanded to include most forms of net abuse. The term “spam” is most commonly used to refer to unsolicited e-mail and usenet abuse.
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SMTP
SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. TCP/IP protocol typically used for sending e-mail.
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Tarpitting
The use of traffic monitoring to identify remote IP addresses sending too many emails. Access to the mail system from those IP addresses is then temporarily suspended.
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UBE
Unsolicited Bulk E-mail
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UCE
Unsolicited Commercial E-mail
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White Hat
ISP that will terminate a net abuser immediately and without mercy.
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Whitelist
A list of outside email addresses allowed to send to the email server
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