New spam filters prove effective
By JACKIE WOMACK
Most of the junk e-mails known as spam have been going to the electronic dump since the university’s new spam filter, SpamAssasin, debuted in March, associate director of operating systems Jim Michael said.
“During the first part of April, the system intercepted almost half a million messages that it identified as spam and either blocked or sent,” he said. “(That) is almost half the e-mail coming into campus.”
Michael said the system has improved over time, going from about 200 spam e-mails a day for the average user not using a spam filter down to 80 a day with the old spam filter and now down to 11 spam e-mails a day with the new filter. He said the average 11 spam e-mails could be reduced even further if the strength of the filters were turned up on the users’ end.
Cynthia Diaz, a senior majoring in sociology, takes a break to check her e-mail in the libary. Photo by Katrina Koelewyn |
Senior Nick Blanchard said the filter has improved his e-mail.
“I’m getting less (spam),” he said. “Since they’ve put it on, I’ve only noticed one e-mail that I identified as spam.”
Michael said the filtering of the approximately 18,000-20,000 campus e-mail accounts would only get better.
“[The filters] have the ability to learn from experience what is and isn’t spam for a particular user,” he said.
He said both the U.S. and state governments had been looking at ways to combat spam.
The first felony conviction for spamming was handed down in October, in Virginia, where Jeremy Jaynes, formerly one of the world’s top 10 spammers, was found guilty of sending fraudulent e-mails.
Blanchard was enthusiastic when told of the conviction.
“It’s about time,” he said. “They need to get more of them.”
Some students may have already given up on the university’s e-mail system, however.
Graphic design major Marie Jacques, said she rarely uses the Fresno State system.
“To be honest, I really don’t check my (Fresno State) e-mail that much,” she said. “I really don’t get a lot of it. What I do get is related to school.”
Jacques said she prefers her off-campus e-mail service because it’s faster, probably because there’s not a lot of students logging on. She said she sometimes doesn’t receive e-mails when using her Fresno State account or is not able to access it at all.
Ken Sun, a graduate medical student, said he’s seen progress in the e-mail.
“It has been a little bit better,” he said. “ I don’t get as much as I used to [get].”
Sun said that he still received some spam e-mails, however, Michael said spammers are always trying to “fool spam filters by (doing things like) intentionally misspelling words” and by testing them to see what they’re looking for.
“This isn’t something we just fix it and forget it,” he said. “We have to keep improving the service as the people who send spam change.”
He said that he’s gotten “quite a few e-mails from people on the new spam filter.”
“The overwhelming majority are positive,” he said. “I’m awfully encouraged by that. We’re always interested to hear from faculty and students on how the filters have been working.”
Michael said feedback from users was the only way operating systems services could improve e-mail.
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