Good afternoon, all,
On Tue, 13 Jul 2004, Chris Santerre wrote:
Symantec's patent-pending URL Filters technology leverages key infrastructure elements unique to Symantec. Using its real-time spam data, the BLOC builds a list of spammer's Web sites. At the customer site, URL Filters compare embedded links in messages to the list of spam URLs maintained by the BLOC.
The list itself is created by using a combination of offline and real-time processes, incorporating URLs fromthe following sources:
Probe Network data. The majority of the spam URLs are extracted from incoming spam and historical data from the Probe Network. Thus, if there are URLs present in the message, and the BLOC has ruled against the message, the URL is added to the list.
Trusted third party lists. URL lists maintained by third party vendors and partners are verified, cross-checked, and incorporated into Symantec's spam URL list. "
Patent Pending? Third Party? Hmmm........
I have a problem with people making money off open source. I have a REAL problem when people don't even mention the source. I'm not saying they do use surbl.org, but if they did, they should say it.
They also say that URL filtering is exclusive to brightmail. Nice!
Brightmail was kind enough to sponsor some webcasts we ran at my employer (sans.org) on Spam. After one of the webcasts, I approached them about having them use at least the domains I'd collected in their product. After they realized the sa-blacklist was GPL'd the conversation was over; their corporate mentaility has completly assimilated the concept that GPL is evil and using the sa-blacklist would instantly cause all their intellectual property to become public domain, or something similarly evil *. In short, they're not interested in the sa-blacklist/surbl. It's still technically possible that they download it over one of multiple forms, but I have no evidence either way, and this paragraph should _not_ be interpreted that I even suspect they _might_ be doing so. Cheers, - Bill
* Note for the humor impaired; they didn't say that, but it is clear that they consider the GPL a virus with evil effects on their IP.
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