Lyman Hazelton wrote:
a message for that person into the anon service. If not, it simply ignores the message. There are LOTS of silent listeners on the list and it could be ANY of them. Stoping this is not going to be easy. I don't suppose Julf@penet.fi would be interested in recording the name of the site where all these requests are originating? Any other ideas?
Stopping attacks like this will not be easy: * the attacker is using alt.test (as I recall) to report results...this is precisely the "anonymous pool" we argue for, for untraceability. * if he's as smart as I suspect, he's also bouncing the messages to penet through Cypherpunks-type remailers first. This makes it harder (a little harder now, with our fragile remailers, *much* harder someday) for Julf to "record the name of the site where all these requests are originating." The fragility of the Net exposes it to spamming attacks. And I think Julf agrees that a rewrite of the code at his site is overdue....he's mentioned this here, and is seeking donations. (Personally, I think the "volunteer" aspect is at fault here: tens of thousands of users use it for "free," while the software can't be rewritten or maintained adequately. Why not a commercial service? And the same arguments apply, as always, for the Cypherpunks model of remailers.) --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."