Feb 2, 2004 : FTC Warns Firms of Spam Weaknesses

📅 February 2, 2004 - The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and its corresponding agencies in 26 other countries are sending email notifications to network administrators that are believed to be responsible for open relays and open proxies that spammers can use as a "broadcast point" for sending out large quanitifies of unsolicited commercial emails, according to a report in silicon.com.

According to the report, the undertaking is part of the FTC's efforts to close open relays, an initiative it began last May with notices sent out to 1,000 network administrators.
The emails warn administrators to "secure their servers" and asks them to take appropriate action or risk decreased network performance and even the possibility of having their Internet service provider shut them down.
The recipients of the emails, the report said, are taken from existing anti-spam blacklists such as the Open Relay Database and the Open Proxy Database.
The notifications are to be sent to owners of the range of Internet addresses that the open proxies or relays inhabit ? and not typically to end users.
Other participating countries include the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Switzerland and South Korea.