For those of you fortunate enough to be attending February’s MAAWG (Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group) conference in sunny San Francisco, I will be speaking on “why 98% accurate doesn’t really mean 98% accurate.” Spam filters have gotten pretty good “on average.” The spam war is now all about dealing with those gaps in filter effectiveness and reputation system coverage that occur from time to time, showering end users with bursts of spam. This problem of “dips” is particularly acute for service providers, who suffer mass defections of users when filter accuracy dips.
I will be giving my talk on Tuesday February 19 at 2:30pm at the Mark Hopkins hotel on Nobb Hill. Details are on the MAAWG agenda for those of you who are members of the organization. Pre-talk suggestions are welcome – get in touch with me by leaving a comment.