North American Network Operators Group
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Re: Heads-up: AT&T apparently going to whitelist-only inbound mail

  • From: Steven M. Bellovin
  • Date: Wed Oct 22 16:54:14 2003 
Some people have been wondering if my statement was authentic, 
authorized, etc.  That's a fair question.  I've pgp-signed this copy
of it; my public key is available via my Web page and via key servers 
around the net.  See http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3097171
for a news story with similar content.


>
>              AT&T STATEMENT - CURRENT SPAM ATTACK - 10/22/03
>
>AT&T and a number of other large companies have seen a marked
>increase in the amount of incoming SPAM in recent days. A team of
>experts that includes members from AT&T Labs, Network Services,
>and Corporate Security has implemented a number of procedures to
>remediate this situation and minimize its impact on those trying
>to send e-mail to "att.com" addresses.
>
>As of this morning - Wednesday, October 22nd - the level of incoming
>e-mail messages is returning to normal and the situation appears
>to be well in hand. Although all AT&T e-mail servers are fully
>operational at this time, some incoming messages are experiencing
>intermittent delays as SPAM filtering continues at all network
>gateways.
>
>Customers who received e-mail bulletins from AT&T Monday and Tuesday
>requesting specific information are advised to disregard those
>messages.  They were inadvertently sent out in error and we apologize
>for any confusion or inconvenience they may have caused.
>
Network reliability is one of our top priorities at AT&T, so for
>obvious reasons we will not be providing more detailed information
>regarding the specific security procedures implemented to curb this
>SPAM attack. We have no intention of helping those who generate
>this type of computer and Internet mischief.
>


		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb

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