Dutch mail server whitelist declares war on botnets today!

Jan. 12, 2011 - PRLog -- Amsterdam, January 11, 2011. Foundation Mailserver Whitelist launches today, together with www.ipv6whitelist.eu, a not-for-profit and free registration database for mail servers using an IPv6 Internet address. Consequently, The Netherlands has now launched the world's first national whitelist which takes on the problem of spam and in particular will stop botnets in the Netherlands. Due to the fact that the entire Internet will switch from IPv4 to IPv6 in the coming year, the effect will be minimal but will still have a significant impact on the email traffic coming from the Netherlands.

At the moment 95% of all email traffic consists of spam. An address, the so-called IP address, is uniquely assigned to all individual computers. Since these addresses will soon be exhausted a new version 6 of the numbering system has been introduced. By using this new IPv6 system the amount of numbers will never run out. With the transfer to IPv6 spammers get broad access to an infinite number of IP addresses and this makes it even harder to stop spam. This initiative goes completely against the openness of the Internet by obliging mail servers to register in a central database. Email from mail servers in the Netherlands which are not registered will be blocked. More often than not, these tend to be hacked computers (also known as bots) which are being abused to send spam. "In the long term we foresee a significant reduction in spam originating from the Netherlands. Because it is a completely cost free system, we expect little resistance from the market, especially because we can get a major upcoming issue once again under control," said one of the initiators Dreas van Donselaar, CTO of the Dutch mail security company SpamExperts.

“SpamExperts understands that as an anti-spam company the appearance of objectivity could be against us. As a result, we have discussed extensively this issue with the spam filtering marketplace and our world wide competitors in order to establish this solid foundation. Together with Ruud van den Bercken (XS4ALL Internet bv / Stay-Secure) and Raymond Dijkxhoorn (Prolocation / SURBL), the board was formed and objectivity has been guaranteed. This initiative is completely focused on drastically reducing the volume of spam from the Netherlands. It is all about volunteers and donations.”. Responding to the question of whether this could make SpamExperts irrelevant or not Mr Van Donselaar states: "At the moment the amount of spam is so high that anti-spam companies will continue to remain of vital importance. This foundation ensures that the problem remains manageable, not only now but also in the future. We are active in over 100 countries, but this initiative only applies to the Netherlands. It will take some time before similar initiatives will be taken worldwide.".


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About Stichting Mailserver Whitelist
Stichting Mailserver Whitelist was founded in 2010 by SpamExperts and is currently controlled by Ruud van den Bercken (XS4ALL Internet bv/Stay-Secure), Raymond Dijkxhoorn (Prolocation/SURBL) and Dreas van Donselaar (SpamExperts). The Stichting targets the IPv6 spam problem worldwide with public whitelisting technologies. All data is publicly available and everyone is free to use it. There is no commercial incentive whatsoever and the Stichting is being run by volunteers.

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About SpamExperts B.V.

SpamExperts is the leading provider of email security solutions from Amsterdam. Since 2004, SpamExperts has been growing its customer-base in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australia and meanwhile has become market leader in a number of countries. All solutions are inhouse developed and are either offered via SaaS, or are directly installed as a managed software in the infrastructure of the customer. Prices for the incoming filtering start at USD 0.30/ Domain/Year, without user - or inbox limitations. The latest additions to the product portfolio are an outgoing email filter server as well as an email archiving product. More information under http://www.spamexperts.com