Gates: We'll End Spam Within 2 Years - 28 Jan 2004

I read with some amusement the pledge to end spam within 2 yearsthat Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates madeduring his annual visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos,Switzerland. I was amused because I woke up this morning, as I didyesterday, to dozens of spam messages, all of which had somehow madeit past the cunningly created and continually updated server-side spamfilters I erected on my mail server. Spam is like water poking awayendlessly at a concrete barrier: No matter how well you build thatwall, no matter how strong it's fortified, it's eventually going togive way to the water. And, like a force of nature, spam is seeminglyinvincible--oblivious to the blocks I put in its way. Every day Ispend a lot of time--too much time--dealing with this plague.

So, how will Gates end spam? We already know that Microsoft hascreated spam-filtering technologies for use in its Microsoft ExchangeServer, Microsoft Outlook, and MSN Hotmail products. And last year,the company began working with state and federal governments to pursuethe most virulent spammers, putting a less technological and morelawful face on the battle against spam. But recent legal moves in theUnited States will have little effect on most American spammers.Worldwide, spammers can set up virtual shops anywhere to bypass locallaws; it happens every day.

These technological and legal efforts have been largelyunsuccessful if you measure success by whether they prevent spam fromreaching end users. Many of you have probably experienced the pain ofsetting up a spam filter with a rating that's too high, causingimportant email messages to be blocked. But when you set it to a lowersetting, you end up having to manually delete the email messages youdon't want. Although we'll always be able to improve the fairlyimpressive results we get with the Bayesian-type spam filtering thatmost spam filters now use, such filters will never be a cure-all. I'mglad my spam filter caught 218 spam messages this morning (I checked);I'm not so happy that it let more than 50 spam messages through.

Gates says that Microsoft is looking at several solutions, some ofwhich are further along than others. One obvious solution is achallenge-response system, which Mailblocks and other innovative emailservices use. This system forces first-time emailers to respond to anemail query before their messages are delivered to you, ensuring thatthey're human. If Microsoft were to adopt such a system--perhaps bypurchasing Mailblocks--and use the system in its market-leadingHotmail service, the company could almost instantly stem the tide ofmuch of the spam that's delivered worldwide. But other popular emailproviders, such as Yahoo!, would need to adopt similar systems forthis approach to be globally successful.

Another possible approach, Gates says, is an email payment systemin which users can charge fees for email messages they receive. If thefee is too high, the theory goes, spammers and other bulk mailerswon't bother sending email to users. This approach is interesting butis the least well defined, Gates admitted.

One solution that Gates didn't mention that could be the mosteffective is a complete overhaul of the poorly designed emailinfrastructure. Right now, email users can pose as other users orobfuscate their identities and relay mail through remote hosts, makingit next to impossible for authorities or angered email recipients totrack them down. No company or organization is moving too quicklytoward a reformation of the system, however, largely because of thepain and cost it would incur. Email has become a crucial business andsocial tool, and the email infrastructure we all use is clearlybroken. I wonder which kind of catastrophe will have to happen beforewe take the necessary steps to fix this disastrous bit of technologythat we rely on so heavily each day.

In the meantime, I'll continue to wade through email I never shouldhave received--email that advertises "V1@GRA," online footballbetting, auto loans, and possible financial relationships withsuspicious people from Eastern Europe and Nigeria. Can't we put a stopto this silliness