Time for a bit of a rant

[cschuber]

This is maybe not entirely security related, tangentially to it. Certainly a bit of a rant.

<RANT>
Google has over the years implemented measures to block SPAM supposedly shielding its Gmail users from it. I say supposedly because if you want to send email to a Gmail user your domain and SMTP server must meet specific requirements. But, my Gmail account receives more SPAM than it does legitimate email.

The real problem I have with Google and Gmail is the amount of SPAM I receive from Gmail users. This is not someone spoofing a email from GMail but email coming from Google's network (as can be seen in SMTP headers). How rich it is they implement processes, albeit ineffective ones, but nonetheless ones that do block email from domains that don't meet certain requirements, yet they appear not to care if any of their users spam others.

Juxtaposed to this is the amount of SPAM and probes on my network coming from not only Google's network but from AWS, Digital Ocean and many other cloud providers. A similar situation.

Having said that, my SMTP gateway is configured to drop the vast majority of the SPAM. And my firewall logs are filled with attempts from various cloud providers networks. One might conclude, well... you kinda get it.
</RANT>

This might even be a good SN topic.

 

[AlanD]

I don't know what country you are in, but in UK, we can report phishing emails to National Cyber Security Centre. You just forward the mail to "report@phishing.gov.uk" and they will log it and take action where appropriate. You can also open an account at "spamcop.net" and they will process spam emails and report them to the sender's ISP.

 

[cschuber]

Not here.

My point is, these large tech corporations impose draconian measures to block legitimate email, yet their customers have free reign to "terrorize" the Internet with spam and network probes. I get it that this is the way big business operates but it really shouldn't be this way.

If you're a spammer or part of some ransomware gang or other hacking/cracking group, there's a "safe" place to operate from that most firewalls and spam filters must accept.

Granted a block all rule or anti-spam software will stop the vast majority of the spam or attacks. My logs are full of blocked spam or probees against my firewall.

The big players don't take their responsibility seriously, if at all.

 

[AlanD]

I went to see someone today who was not getting some emails. It turned out that he had accidentally blacklisted "*@gmail.com" instead of "specific_spammer@gmail.com". - An easy fix!