ANON: un-filterable pseudonyms

[Yanek Martinson]

> In my off-line newsreader, Eudora, (which ironically is also the subject of
> the message attached below--must be a plot), it's easy enough to mark all
> the stuff from some anonymous site for deletion.

This is only possible if there are few, well known, anonymous sites,
and/or if all anonymous aliases look similar, such as an1234.

How do you know if KSDF32 at KMUVAX is an anonymous address, or a real
user login?

I also expect to see pseudonyms that look like real names.  I don't think
it would be too hard to pick a random first and last name from a list
of real names, and create a From: line like jsmith at someplace.edu (John Smith)
which will look just like a regular address.

Even the remailers that don't create reply-able aliases could generate
random real-looking From: lines, just to make the posts look non-anonymous.

The only possible solution would be to ignore all messages not from addresses
you trust.  This is basically the "don't talk to strangers" policy.


--
Yanek Martinson
yanek at novavax.nova.edu