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Reasons why Security Focus are idiots

This mob hosts various security-related lists such as BugTraq etc, so you would think that they would have some Clue™, right? Not so, it would seem…

  • They are listed by SORBS in their “spam” zone, and cannot seem to figure out how to get out of it, despite my many rejection messages.

  • But not all of their servers are listed; consistency doesn't appear to have crossed their minds. On second thoughts, they may have several servers behind a NAT firewall or something; in other words, they can be RFC-compliant if they put their pointy little heads together.

  • They are unable to handle my RFC-compliant banner, but go into “woodpecker” mode i.e. like Einstein's definition of insanity they keep retrying and expecting a different outcome; I'm told that this is a “feature” of Qmail.

  • Similarly they get upset over a greeting pause; I'm told that this is yet another broken Qmail “feature”, so it would appear that the author (whoever he/she/it is) does not like common anti-spam measures. I wonder why? I'm not calling the author a spammer, but the behaviour is certainly consistent with one…

  • Nobody appears to monitor the behaviour of their EzMLM manager.

  • Messages sent to listowner, abuse, and postmaster go unanswered.

  • OK, not a crime as such, but from time to time they don't have a Message-ID: header (and I check for that). Are these twits capable of finding their own arse-holes without both hands, a torch, and a map? (On further analysis, it's a pure reflector i.e. it does not generate a Message-ID by itself, so a contributor is stupid as well.)

    privatisation-narrow
    You be the judge.

    Flash: As of 4th Dec 2014, it looks like somebody finally woke up. I got one of their probes, that basically says “If we unsubscribe you then please click here to re-subscribe” which I ignored, and I'm now receiving Bugtraq stuff again.

    Extra: I got another rectal probe from them, on 11th Dec 2014, and guess what? Total idiots, they be…

    Late extra: as of around half past April 2015, these twits seem to be able to handle my RFC-compliant server.


    If you really want to email me (and fancy your chances of getting past my spam filters) then try here; if you are a filthy spammer with a desperate need to be added to my oubliette then this is probably your best bet.

    If you're crazy enough to want to see my attempt at a home page then it's found over here somewhere.


    Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU)
    dave@horsfall.org
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