Remailer Network Under Attack

It looks like a new round of attacks against the remailer network is
underway.  Once again, the provocation is "abuse".

Unknown persons have been using anonymous remailers and mail2news
gateways to "plant" e-mail addresses in various NGs for the
spam-bots to harvest and deluge with spam.  The original intention
appears to have been to "poison the well" for spammers by planting
addresses that they'd get in trouble for sending their junk mail to.
It appears that one or more copy-cats is now using the same
methodology to plant the addresses of people who they'd like to see
spammed.  (I'm using the term "plant" rather than "forge" since the
messages seem to contain sufficient disclaimers that the From:
addresses are not genuine.  Sufficient for a normal HUMAN reader,
but not an automated address harvester, that is.)

Within the last week or so, a chorus of complaints has arisen about
this practice, orchestrated by about a half dozen individuals who
meet an interesting criteria -- they all hold dual accounts on both
Netcom and a small ISP known as DataBasix.com.

The scenario is quite similar each time this has happened in the
past, such as with the cross-posted pro-smoking/anti-smoking threads
last year.  One of the complainers politely asks that the abusers be
identified and their abuse stop.  This is, of course, impossible
because the perpetrators are posting anonymously.  The second step,
which follows the first very closely, is a demand that the remailer
be shut down with threats being CCed to sysadmins and upstream
providers.

Given the variety of addresses being "spam baited", the only logical
target of this abuse is the remailers themselves.  Both sides of
certain heated controversies report being made the target of this
spam bait, each side accusing the other of being responsible.

The only question is whether the main group of complainers (the
Netcom/DataBasix group) are merely innocent bystanders or whether
they may have initiated the "abuse" as an excuse to shut down the
remailers in furtherance of some unknown agenda.  Either that, or
someone else is attacking the remailer net and it's just a
coincidence that a group fitting such a curious pattern (dual
accounts on the same two ISPs) should step in and demand the
dismantling of several elements of the remailer/m2n-gateway
infrastructure.

HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION: Would mentioning the "Reichstag Fire" invoke
Godwin's Law prematurely? <g>

> Given the variety of addresses being "spam baited", the only logical
> target of this abuse is the remailers themselves.  Both sides of
> certain heated controversies report being made the target of this
> spam bait, each side accusing the other of being responsible.

    Allegations of responsibility are a serious charge and should
be looked into immediately.


     GOOD GUYS AND BAD GUYS, circa 12/95

     There are two kinds of people in the world.  Those that divide
people into two kinds and those that don't.

     With that in mind, I present to you the following over
simplification.

     There are two kinds of people in the world, the good guys and the
bad guys.

     The good guys speak with the Voice of Truth, and the bad guys
speak with the Voice of Lies.

     I believe that anonymity is the foundation of freedom in the
known universe.  Anonymity is the ability to speak either the voice of
truth or the voice of lies without anyone knowing who you are.

     Accountability is the opposite of Anonymity.  Accountability
means that everyone knows who said what and can take them to task for
it.

     Both sides can use force to silence the other side, but usually
its the bad guys who use force to silence the good guys, good guys use
more voice of Truth to expose the bad guys.
 
     Although some would claim that in general accountability is a
good thing, I would point out that ALL members of the controlling
party of the emerging police state are adamantly FOR absolute
accountability at all times for all their citizens.  That should give
one pause to wonder.

     Anonymity is actually very hard to maintain, and absolute
anonymity for all people at all times is very difficult indeed.

     Therefore by observation a society or oganization is usually
operating at some gradient scale of anonymity between the extremes of
total anonymity and total non anonymity.

     It can come to pass that certain gradient levels of anonymity end
up benefitting the bad guys more than the good guys.  In these
situations, the bad guys tend to start winning and the good guys
perceive that the bad guys are winning BECAUSE of anonymity.

     Rather than use the weapon of anonymity themselves to protect
against the bad guys, the usual convulsive reaction on the part of the
good guys is to try and close down the channels of anonymity to keep
the bad guys located and corralled, rather than to open up the
channels more and use it themselves.  This does not occur to them, or
if it does they are beset with visions of the bad guys getting away
with more than they are now.

     The logic for closing down the channels of anonymity goes
something like this.  Since our country is ruled by an Omni
Intelligent and Omni Beneficent God King, if we can track every
communication down to the person who said it, the God King will be
able to tell the good guys from the bad guys, and silence the bad guys
for us.

     The problem with this logic is that our country is not run by a
God King, but by human beings who tend to elect each other into power
based on outrageous criteria.

     As the bad guys see themselves getting corraled with
accountability, they simply run for office and get themselves elected
into the positions of power where THEY are the ones taking action
against the bad guys.  Of course they take action against the good
guys instead.

     It is for this reason that the temptation to tighten
accountability when anonymity is abused is always an error and leads
to a terrible trap worse than any tar pit.  Namely only the bad guys
get to speak, and the good guys get to remain silent fearing for their
lives.
 
     Which is why when the police ask if you have something to hide
after you have refused to let them spot search your belongings, you
must always say, "Of course, I have EVERYTHING to hide.  FROM YOU!"

     Anyhow as an ISP it is my job to provide the channels of
communication between people.  That's what I do, I provide the
CHANNEL.  This includes standard accountable channels and not so
standard anonymous channels.

     People who communicate with each other tend to get into fights
with each other over what they are communicating about.  Usually they
take their fights out on each other.  But when anonymous channels are
used, they can't get to each other, they don't know who each other is,
so they take it out on the provider of the channel instead.  That's
me.
  
     It's enough to make you want to throw anonymity in the waste
basket.

     Providing a communication channel is a difficult job, it usually
involves a precarious balance between allowing the good guys to speak
and making sure the bad guys don't get away with the gold.

     It is very hard to maintain that balance with both sides pulling
and tugging on you because they can't pull and tug on each other.

     One of the main purposes of the Subscriber Agreement is to make
sure that people pull and tug on each other, and leave me out of it
even if they got no one to target at the other end.

     Homer