Challenge Response

John Levine, author of best-sellers Internet for Dummies, the new Fighting Spam for Dummies, and Windows XP: the Complete Reference, says that challenge-response systems are as harmful as spam. Certain flaws is because C-R system rely on the From: line for authentication, and most current ones ("reply to this message" or "click on this link") can be trivially bypassed by spammers. These two are considered security problems.

The first problem is probably the most serious; it can probably be solved through micropayments, hash cash, digital signatures (web-of-trust or certification authority), but none of those technologies will be deployed in a hurry, and an alternative is painful and awkward. There is also an issue regarding poor integration and list-intelligence because spammers do not understand mailing lists.

Finally, C-R system fails to address techno-economic underpinnings of spam. As with most recipient-side filtering systems, C-R imposes negligible incremental overhead on the spammer. A delivery is made, then the spam server moves on, and the cost is a single SMTP connection for a fractional second. Collateral costs are high: for legitimate senders, spoofed reply addresses, mailing lists, and retaliatory actions on the challenge-response user.

Challenge response is the most likely companion of a spam arrest. But, employing the aid of challenge response in order to get rid of spam problems may not be that easy. At times, when people do not properly know how a challenge response works, it may further complicate the problem.

In order to discern if the sender is a genuine person and not a spammer or a mailing robot, take the challenge. There are certain considerations that must be taken into account. A challenge response system should be flexed with anti-spam systems. This is to ensure that challenges are delivered only to new correspondents for mails that can be categorized as spam or not.

This system must also have an Auto-Submitted header and an In-Reply-to header with the message id of the origin of the message. In addition, make sure not to challenge responses, list mail, automated mail, errors, and other challenges in your mail. Bear in mind also, not to challenge responses even to public messages. These and a whole lot more are the things that you should keep in mind in order to effectively get the valuable benefits of spam-free mail systems.

More and more people around the world are getting technologically wired. This is brought about by rapid technological advancement. Indeed, modern technology has greatly helped the world attain development.

People from all walks of life utilize the computer more specifically internet surfing for various reasons. But, it is commonly and widely used for business purposes, travel agendas, leisure activities, and most importantly to solicit much needed bits of information. The internet contains practically all conceivable subjects in the world. That is why it is great tool used by many in order to keep abreast of what is going and happening in every corner of the earth.

A problem occurs when one's mail program or system is damaged and harmed by viruses particularly spam mails. These trash e-mails which are commonly in bulk, enter your mail system day and day out. Unsolicited and unwanted as they are, spam mails may actually clog your mail program because they are indiscriminately sent and contain irrelevant information. Be careful in running your mail system, and when you encounter a spam, it may be hard to filter, but it can be deleted immediately.

Another thing you can do to stop spam messages from getting into your account is to 'challenge response'. It is like keeping a password protected e-mail account.

People who want to send you mail must answer a question that you give them when they try to access your account. You can give it to them personally when you know they are going to send you an important e-mail. This is also used for internet servers and websites. There isn't much software that allows you to do this but there are freeware in the Internet that allows you to download and try its prototypes.

A challenge response is a technique that can prevent you from receiving spam messages. It asks for the user attempting to connect or to send you a message to verify that they are 'real' and not just spammers. They are given codes that serve also as their passwords. Sometimes, a question is asked, if you know the receiver well, then you will be able to answer it and therefore send your email. Spammers won't waste time verifying themselves, instead they'll just move on and bother some other unprotected account.