🚀 go-pugleaf

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Over the past years we have made a number of announcements
regarding customers running open mail relays and our policy
changes on this matter. The most recent was:

   http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/announce/2002/da2002-07-26a.shtml

This latest announcement is to notify our customers that we
will shortly be implementing improved mail relay testing software,
primarily in order to provide us with more informative results
from the dialup customer base. 

Various open mail relays, often being hosted by people unaware
that their systems are vulnerable, are now the largest source of
unwanted email (spam) circulating the Internet as the junk mail
senders are forced to look for vulnerable systems to continue
their spamming as the more normal routes are being closed to
them.

ISPs continue to have a part to play in ensuring that their
customers are not running vulnerable systems.

In support of this, we will shortly begin enhanced automated
testing of our IP address space, pro-actively monitoring
for machines that are willing to proxy connections for
unauthorised third parties.

These tests are not intended to be exhaustive, but will serve to
indicate whether machines are likely to be exploited. It should be
noted though that even if a system passes our tests, it does not
mean that site is not exploitable by some other means our tests
did not cover.

We would also like to take this opportunity to warn customers of a
new type of attack on mail servers. Some servers such as Exchange,
Domino (and several others) permit remote users to send email via
password authentication schemes such as SMTP AUTH. On a number of
recent occasions we have seen customer machines exploited by use
of default passwords (especially on admin accounts) and by the
'brute force' guessing of weak passwords over periods reported to
extend into weeks. Customers are encouraged to disable
authorisation systems that are not needed, but otherwise to set
strong passwords and to monitor usage.

More information is available at:

   http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/evidence.lasso?rokso_id=ROK2669
   http://www.windows2000mag.com/Article/ArticleID/40507/40507.html

Malcolm Muir
D e m o n

- -- 
Malcolm S. Muir                                   D e m o n
Sunderland                                        322 Regents Park Road
England                                           London N3 2QQ


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1

iQCVAwUBP8IQwMUeMni8Zor9AQGSyQP+P4oFT8Qp/01ty7BOcFHtPpUyLpLwZYAg
5NcqhVvchQDqcTHNE7lyPYc0U6j7xgaNAZiFXBQeO2pG1/c5CdEabBaZ8myBi6j2
bWc1nyM6gkMPyQNAZpAk2E1DqO5yiEK+qykKuQjDE64Et/3EdOc0eFtWPUIl/d+k
ExZDOjUWBbc=
=kSxk
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----