lsi wrote:
Of all the approaches below I like the simple list of strings in the
email client (the first link). This is because it's a DENY ALL
policy. ...
"simple" -- yes.
"DENY ALL" -- nope...
From your first post, it's clear that you receive samples from a _VERY_
limited sliver of the bank, credit union and other financial target
phishing that goes on each and every day...
From a purely theoretical perspective, to make your preferred approach
"DENY ALL" you would have to have ongoing access to an oracle identifying
the domains of ALL financial institutions, so your block list could be
updated in a timely manner as domains are added and removed...
As no such oracle exists, a "deny all" approach along the lines you
suggest is _practically_ impossible.
... The other approaches below, AFAICS, use ACCEPT ALL and then
try and find reasons to block the mail. ...
Which is actually what your suggested approach does, even if it could be
practically implemented -- it accepts all Email (or at least all incoming
Email delivery connections) then tries to find a reason to block it (From
address domain on block list).
... The first approach simply
blocks them all! ...
...for some interesting and unknowably odd value of "all".
... Sure, you want to receive mail from the Bank of
Foo, just don't put bankoffoo.com in your list!
Thereby letting through the phish for the target(s) of most danger to you
-- get suckered by a Foo Bank phish as a Foo Bank customer and you may be
in trouble, but getting suckered by a Bar Bank phish when you are only a
Foo Bank customer and no harm is done.
Also, your preferred approach entirely fails to deal with "close but not
quite" domain "spoofing" -- info@vvachovia.com rather than
info@wachovia.com, suport@foo_bank.com rather than support@foo-bank.com
(the real Foo Bank domain), etc, etc, etc.
In short, as is commonly the case in such matters, the quick'n'dirty, I-
just-thought-of-the-ultimate-solution-to-the-phishing-problem-AND-it's-
REALLY-SIMPLE solution is so far from complete that it's all but
useless...
Regards,
Nick FitzGerald
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