MSN blocks 2.4bn spam emails a day

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 8 May 2003 at 17:19

MSN has started taking antispam measures seriously of late and is now blocking 2.4bn of the blighters a day. But when you consider that this figure is 80 per cent of all messages to MSN servers, you have to ask why the company hadn't got round to doing this before.

MSN is to make a four-pronged attack on spam. Having introduced its Human Interactive Proof technologies to stop spam Hotmail accounts being set up automatically and having teamed up with AOL and Yahoo! to create a 'global industry alliance' against it, MSN is now providing educational guides for its users (at msn.co.uk/msnhelp) to defend against spam.

Furthermore, today it has announced new image filters that prevent images embedded within spam mail from loading unless the sender is in the recipients contacts list. Single pixel images can be embedded in spam mail that, when loaded, confirm to the sender that the recipient's email address is indeed an active one.

MSN is claiming that the effect of these technologies is blocking 2.4bn spam messages a day and is reducing attempts to set up new hotmail accounts by 20 per cent.

A spokeperson for the company told us the key locking the door on spam is in fact the rather boring announcement of an industry alliance. And it makes sense. While ISPs across the globe have lamented the scourge that is spam for years, do you think any one of them would risk reducing online sign-ups by 20 per cent if they thought their competitors weren't also doing their level best to tackle the issue?

MSN, which claims to hold the top spot for consumer portals in the UK, told us it is confident enough in its lead over its rivals to put such a dent in its new subscriber figures in the name of tackling spam. But its confidence is probably better placed in the assurance that rivals won't be boosting their own figures with spam accounts.

Perhaps this is one of the few industry alliances that, rather than resulting in endless to-ing and fro-ing to reach an agreement, will actually mean real progress.

After all, whatever anti-spam EU Directives find their way into our national law, spam is a global problem, and tackling it at a local level will probably prove fruitless. So the ISPs that facilitate the sending of spam (and the other 20 per cent of genuine email in the case of MSN!) are surely the most able to protect us against it.