This article takes a look at the evolution of the spam cycle (for as Sun Tzu and every general who ever came after him said, "Know thine enemy and victory will be forthcoming"). It also takes a look at SpamAssassin, the latest in a long and venerable line of weapons in the fight against spam, as well as a look ahead. . . .
This article takes a look at the evolution of the spam cycle (for as Sun Tzu and every general who ever came after him said, "Know thine enemy and victory will be forthcoming"). It also takes a look at SpamAssassin, the latest in a long and venerable line of weapons in the fight against spam, as well as a look ahead.

SpamAssassin, a relative newcomer to the fight against spam, was first released around April of 2001 by Matt Sergeant, Craig Hughes, and Justin Mason and is currently (as of this writing) at version 2.20. It has become very popular very quickly -- it is currently running on some 30,000 UNIX servers (according to SpamAssassin vendor Deersoft -- see Resources for a link), and has even been featured on ABC's Good Morning America (!).

After having used JunkFilter for years, and thinking it was pretty good, I was blown away by how effective SpamAssassin is. I think that this is due in large part to several good design decisions on the part of SpamAssassin's developers. I'd like to lead you through the problems they faced -- and how they solved them -- as an example of real-world problem solving. Finally, I'll guide you through SpamAssassin's easy configure process, and we'll be all done! (As will, hopefully, the spammers who plague us.)

The link for this article located at IBM developerWorks is no longer available.