July 12, 2006 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – The recent annual general meeting of the London Internet Exchange (better known as LINX - http://www.linx.net) resulted in the organization’s 200+ members agreeing a number of “operational principles” for people involved in spam management to share information without infringing on customer privacy. The resolution was made based of a review of techniques designed to fight spam which were established through the research of Dr Richard Clayton of the Security Group at the University of Cambridge and the "spamHINTS" research project (which is financially supported by LINX and Intel Research).
spamHINTS utilizes traffic data analysis techniques to identify spam sources “without using content analysis”. According to Dr Clayton, "Traffic data logs can be analyzed to seek out patterns indicative of the sending of spam or copies of email viruses. The patterns of usage between legitimate senders of email and those sending spam and viruses are very different and importantly, analysis can be carried out on just the traffic data without any of the content analysis results at all."
Estimates suggest that around over 60% of all email is spam and Dr Clayton's research is part of the LINX membership’s continuing commitment to fighting spam. As Malcolm Hutty, LINX’s Head of Public Affairs suggested, "As always, we are very appreciative for the hard work undertaken on behalf of LINX by the membership. LINX Best Current Practice publications benefit the industry as a whole, and the extraordinary expertise that experts such as Dr Clayton bring to our BCP development continues to be invaluable."
