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Microsoft Closes Spam Network

What If Microsoft Expanded BizTalk Server Into A Online Collaboration Service? (Part 3)

Furthermore I will detail the major technical requirements for delivery of the proposed service.

The target SMB company profile includes revenue between $5 million to $500 million annually. The company typically has between 50 and 250 employees. Many of these companies are still doing business using manual processes, which is costing these thousands annually. This does not include the opportunity cost due to lost business due to not being able to maintain enough staff to support more customers or not being able to meet customer's demands for automation. Meanwhile their competitors are implementing newer systems that support B2B automation and back office integrations that fuel long-term growth. The BizTalk Collaboration service positions the target SMB market to be better prepared to support their customer's needs.

Businesses just like consumers must be able to feel that their information is being protected. As a service company we must ensure that we address how to limit our liability while still being able to provide the level of security to keep our customers data secure. Since we plan to provide data transformation services that connect vital business information between two parties we must ensure that both parties sign-off to the establishment of the trading relationship. This can be a very complex issue as existing companies on our network attempt to establish new connections through our B2B network.

If the company decides to target health care providers HIPPA regulations regarding the handling of personal data must closely followed. Due to Sarbanes-Oxley regulations there are requirements that call for specific audits, control and management of financial data, although these would only affect companies that are publicly held. Since the SMB market can be hard to reach, we must ensure that marketing efforts don't violate any anti-spam laws. This includes giving customer the choice of opt-in for receipt of unsolicited e-mails. We prefer the use of opt-in strategy as this allows the customer to manage their e-mail preferences without us making assumptions regarding their wishes.

The critical technical requirements are divided into 3 major categories; the technical infrastructure including hardware, software and networking, data communications infrastructure and the user interface. The primary focus of the technical infrastructure is to ensure that the overall computing environment is sufficiently robust to ensure that a highly available solution is delivered while maintaining the lowest possible operating cost. This will include having multiple sites that will provide for disaster recovery capabilities. The network in each of the data centers will be divided into functional virtual LANs (V-LANs) that will provide backup capabilities, end-user access, database connectivity and operation interfaces with multiple logical paths for each of the V-LANs. This ensures that there is no single point of failure in the architecture. The data centers will be connected through a wide area network utilizing MPLS VPN through multiple service providers. The Internet connections will be provided by a tier-1 ISP within the local data center's market. All the software components will be configured to ensure high-availability is maintained through the use of database replication systems and load-balancing functionality available in the BizTalk server product.

The data communications infrastructure will include an extranet component that logically keeps all Internet traffic from directly connecting to the data centers. All inbound and outbound traffic will be routed through the extranet by way of proxy servers that will act as traffic cops keeping unauthorized visitors from accessing any customer data. All information will be encrypted when it is being transported throughout the Internet through either the use of PKI encryption or SSL authentication depending on the type of traffic being routed. Open connectivity protocols will be utilized to connect to customers and their trading partners, which include AS2, AS3, Secure FTP and ebXML.

The use interface requirements are what differentiate the BizTalk Collaboration services offering from the regional players and other value added networks. Many of the current offerings are a heterogeneous set of tools that don't integrate well together to give the customer easy navigation from feature to feature while maintaining a professional look and feel. The BizTalk will utilize a set of tools built upon the same platform to ensure that all features work together in harmony. A single sign-on will allow the customer to access all information available to their account. Customization across all features for the site will allow the customer to control the overall look and feel to their specific taste. This feature will also be applied to the branded offering that is made available to larger customers looking to build communities to reach the SMB market. The content of the site will include specific data that allows BizTalk to provide up-to-date information to the community. This information will be searchable from the site as well as published to specific customers based on their profile. Partners will be allowed to communicate with each other regarding specific issues with data integrity via the site, while being able to reference the specific data at issue within the communication without having to create an external copy. This will help to build a true collaboration network where the typical workflow features would be available between external partners, all be it at a very high-level. Additional features include searching for existing trading partners by name and location, finding data that has already been processed and reprocess as required. The system will be able to the generate preconfigured and custom reports including exporting information to MS Excel and Word and well as creating complex tables, graphs and charts. Finally customer service interface will be available to check account status and current balance, which also includes IM, e-mail and VOIP connection to customer service.

For more information about the online collaboration technology or to find out more about what's happening in the information technology or telecommunications industry just follow this link to http://www.YourReportsCenter.com.

 

About the Author

Microsoft Closes Spam Network
Google Internet Summit 2009: Security Session

The Economics of Spam

Tennessee resident K. C. "Khan" Smith owes the internet service
provider EarthLink $24 million. According to the CNN, last
August he was slapped with a lawsuit accusing him of violating
federal and state Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations (RICO) statutes, the federal Computer Fraud and
Abuse Act of 1984, the federal Electronic Communications Privacy
Act of 1986 and numerous other state laws. On July 19 - having
failed to appear in court - the judge ruled against him. Mr.
Smith is a spammer.

Brightmail, a vendor of e-mail filters and anti-spam
applications warned that close to 5 million spam "attacks" or
"bursts" occurred last month and that spam has mushroomed 450
percent since June last year. PC World concurs. Between one
seventh and one half of all e-mail messages are spam -
unsolicited and intrusive commercial ads, mostly concerned with
sex, scams, get rich quick schemes, financial services and
products, and health articles of dubious provenance. The
messages are sent from spoofed or fake e-mail addresses. Some
spammers hack into unsecured servers - mainly in China and Korea
- to relay their missives anonymously.

Spam is an industry. Mass e-mailers maintain lists of e-mail
addresses, often "harvested" by spamware bots - specialized
computer applications - from Web sites. These lists are rented
out or sold to marketers who use bulk mail services. They come
cheap - c. $100 for 10 million addresses. Bulk mailers provide
servers and bandwidth, charging c. $300 per million messages
sent.

As spam recipients become more inured, ISP's less tolerant, and
both more litigious - spammers multiply their efforts in order
to maintain the same response rate. Spam works. It is not
universally unwanted - which makes it tricky to outlaw. It
elicits between 0.1 and 1 percent in positive follow ups,
depending on the message. Many messages now include HTML,
JavaScript, and ActiveX coding and thus resemble viruses.

Jupiter Media Matrix predicted last year that the number of spam
messages annually received by a typical Internet user is bound
to double to 1400 and spending on legitimate e-mail marketing
will reach $9.4 billion by 2006 - compared to $1 billion in
2001. Forrester Research pegs the number at $4.8 billion next
year.

More than 2.3 billion spam messages are sent daily. eMarketer
puts the figures a lot lower at 76 billion messages this year.
By 2006, daily spam output will soar to c. 15 billion missives,
says Radicati Group. Jupiter projects a more modest 268 billion
annual messages by 2005. An average communication costs the
spammer 0.00032 cents.

PC World quotes the European Union as pegging the bandwidth
costs of spam worldwide at $8-10 billion annually. Other damages
include server crashes, time spent purging unwanted messages,
lower productivity, aggravation, and increased cost of Internet
access.

Inevitably, the spam industry gave rise to an anti-spam
industry. According to a Radicati Group report titled
"Anti-virus, anti-spam, and content filtering market trends
2002-2006", anti-spam revenues are projected to exceed $88
million this year - and more than double by 2006. List blockers,
report and complaint generators, advocacy groups, registers of
known spammers, and spam filters all proliferate. The Wall
Street Journal reported in its June 25 issue about a resurgence
of anti-spam startups financed by eager venture capital.

ISP's are bent on preventing abuse - reported by victims - by
expunging the accounts of spammers. But the latter simply switch
ISP's or sign on with free services like Hotmail and Yahoo!
Barriers to entry are getting lower by the day as the costs of
hardware, software, and communications plummet.

The use of e-mail and broadband connections by the general
population is spreading. Hundreds of thousands of
technologically-savvy operators have joined the market in the
last two years, as the dotcom bubble burst. Still, Steve Linford
of the UK-based Spamhaus.org insists that most spam emanates
from c. 80 large operators.

Now, according to Jupiter Media, ISP's and portals are poised to
begin to charge advertisers in a tier-based system, replete with
premium services. Writing back in 1998, Bill Gates described a
solution also espoused by Esther Dyson, chair of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation:

"As I first described in my book 'The Road Ahead' in 1995, I
expect that eventually you'll be paid to read unsolicited
e-mail. You'll tell your e-mail program to discard all
unsolicited messages that don't offer an amount of money that
you'll choose. If you open a paid message and discover it's from
a long-lost friend or somebody else who has a legitimate reason
to contact you, you'll be able to cancel the payment. Otherwise,
you'll be paid for your time."

Subscribers may not be appreciative of the joint ventures
between gatekeepers and inbox clutterers. Moreover, dominant
ISP's, such as AT&T and PSINet have recurrently been accused of
knowingly collaborating with spammers. ISP's rely on the data
traffic that spam generates for their revenues in an
ever-harsher business environment.

The Financial Times and others described how WorldCom refuses to
ban the sale of spamware over its network, claiming that it does
not regulate content. When "pink" (the color of canned spam)
contracts came to light, the implicated ISP's blame the whole
affair on rogue employees.

PC World begs to differ:

"Ronnie Scelson, a self-described spammer who signed such a
contract with PSInet, (says) that backbone providers are more
than happy to do business with bulk e-mailers. 'I've signed up
with the biggest 50 carriers two or three times', says Scelson
.... The Louisiana-based spammer claims to send 84 million
commercial e-mail messages a day over his three
45-megabit-per-second DS3 circuits. 'If you were getting $40,000
a month for each circuit', Scelson asks, 'would you want to shut
me down?'"

The line between permission-based or "opt-in" e-mail marketing
and spam is getting thinner by the day. Some list resellers
guarantee the consensual nature of their wares. According to the
Direct Marketing Association's guidelines, quoted by PC World,
not responding to an unsolicited e-mail amounts to "opting-in" -
a marketing strategy known as "opting out". Most experts,
though, strongly urge spam victims not to respond to spammers,
lest their e-mail address is confirmed.

But spam is crossing technological boundaries. Japan has just
legislated against wireless SMS spam targeted at hapless mobile
phone users. Four states in the USA as well as the European
parliament are following suit. Expensive and slow connections
make this kind of spam particularly resented. Still, according
to Britain's Mobile Channel, a mobile advertising company quoted
by "The Economist", SMS advertising - a novelty - attracts a
10-20 percent response rate - compared to direct mail's 1-3
percent.

Net identification systems - like Microsoft's Passport and the
one proposed by Liberty Alliance - will make it even easier for
marketers to target prospects.

The reaction to spam can be described only as mass hysteria.
Reporting someone as a spammer - even when he is not - has
become a favorite pastime of vengeful, self-appointed, vigilante
"cyber-cops". Perfectly legitimate, opt-in, email marketing
businesses often find themselves in one or more black lists -
their reputation and business ruined.

In January, CMGI-owned Yesmail was awarded a temporary
restraining order against MAPS - Mail Abuse Prevention System -
forbidding it to place the reputable e-mail marketer on its
Real-time Blackhole list. The case was settled out of court.

Harris Interactive, a large online opinion polling company, sued
not only MAPS, but ISP's who blocked its email messages when it
found itself included in MAPS' Blackhole. Their CEO accused one
of their competitors for the allegations that led to Harris'
inclusion in the list.

Coupled with other pernicious phenomena, such as viruses, the
very foundation of the Internet as a fun, relatively safe, mode
of communication and data acquisition is at stake.

Spammers, it emerges, have their own organizations. NOIC - the
National Organization of Internet Commerce threatened to post to
its Web site the e-mail addresses of millions of AOL members.
AOL has aggressive anti-spamming policies. "AOL is blocking bulk
email because it wants the advertising revenues for itself (by
selling pop-up ads)" the president of NOIC, Damien Melle,
complained to CNET.

Spam is a classic "free rider" problem. For any given
individual, the cost of blocking a spammer far outweighs the
benefits. It is cheaper and easier to hit the "delete" key.
Individuals, therefore, prefer to let others do the job and
enjoy the outcome - the public good of a spam-free Internet.
They cannot be left out of the benefits of such an aftermath -
public goods are, by definition, "non-excludable". Nor is a
public good diminished by a growing number of "non-rival" users.

Such a situation resembles a market failure and requires
government intervention through legislation and enforcement. The
FTC - the US Federal Trade Commission - has taken legal action
against more than 100 spammers for promoting scams and
fraudulent goods and services.

"Project Mailbox" is an anti-spam collaboration between American
law enforcement agencies and the private sector. Non government
organizations have entered the fray, as have lobbying groups,
such as CAUCE - the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial
E-mail.

But Congress is curiously reluctant to enact stringent laws
against spam. Reasons cited are free speech, limits on state
powers to regulate commerce, avoiding unfair restrictions on
trade, and the interests of small business. The courts
equivocate as well. In some cases - e.g., Missouri vs. American
Blast Fax - US courts found "that the provision prohibiting the
sending of unsolicited advertisements is unconstitutional".

According to Spamlaws.com, the 107th Congress discussed these
laws but never enacted them:

Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act of 2001 (H.R. 95),
Wireless Telephone Spam Protection Act (H.R. 113), Anti-Spamming
Act of 2001 (H.R. 718), Anti-Spamming Act of 2001 (H.R. 1017),
Who Is E-Mailing Our Kids Act (H.R. 1846), Protect Children From
E-Mail Smut Act of 2001 (H.R. 2472), Netizens Protection Act of
2001 (H.R. 3146), "CAN SPAM" Act of 2001 (S. 630).

Anti-spam laws fared no better in the 106th Congress. Some of
the states have picked up the slack. Arkansas, California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas,
Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and
Wisconsin.

The situation is no better across the pond. The European
parliament decided last year to allow each member country to
enact its own spam laws, thus avoiding a continent-wide
directive and directly confronting the communications ministers
of the union. Paradoxically, it also decided, three months ago,
to restrict SMS spam. Confusion clearly reigns. Finally, last
month, it adopted strong anti-spam provisions as part of a
Directive on Data Protection.

About the Author

Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of
Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain -
How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Central
Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , and Bellaonline, and
as a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business
Correspondent. He is the the editor of mental health and Central
East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.

Microsoft Closes Spam Network