Unwanted junk email and inappropriate Usenet (newsgroup) articles. This is spam. Who produces it, why is it such a serious problem and what can be done to stop it? The authors aim to answer these questions for both novice and experienced users. A history is presented of spam and the major players in its early days.
Then we read how spamming has developed, with a description of the technology employed and the methods which can be used to combat it. An introduction to the internet is given which should make sense to anyone with some experience of using email. Included is a good description of how newsgroups work. A guide to email spam describes safeguards and filters which the average user can employ on his own behalf, including address "munging".
The reader is shown how to go about tracing the source of any spam he/she receives. This detective work includes reading through and interpreting raw email message headers which the average user might find a bit daunting. Finally, in this section there is who to contact to complain when you do receive spam.
There is a similar guide to usenet spam which proceeds mostly along the same lines as the preceding chapter. Again, the more technical parts would be somewhat tedious for some.
Curiously, the penultimate chapter of the book is addressed to administrators and ISPs, yet is less encumbered with technical details. Links are given to useful (anti-spamming) sites and administrators are given some methods for preventing their own users from engaging in spamming. In particular, help is provided for the formulation of a policy against spamming in the first place. The issuing of a clear policy statement would probably be obvious to ISPs nowadays, but might not be considered by other system administrators.
Which leads us to the true function of this book. While it will probably be considered as overly technical in parts by some, and not technically detailed enough by others, Stopping Spam acts as a wake-up call to all internet users. The importance of the book is in raising the awareness of spam as a continuing and growing problem on the internet. So much consideration is given over to issues like virus detection and e-commerce security that spam may be overlooked as a serious problem. The authors aim to put this right.
The final chapter describes actions that can be taken by the Internet community as a whole against spam. A particular weapon described is the amusingly named "Usenet Death Penalty" and the even more serious "Internet Death Penalty". There is an overview of civil and criminal actions against spammers and legislative approaches to dealing with spam.
Unfortunately, as with other parts of the book, this includes much information that is specific to the US only. Although the problems with spam are clear enough, the vigilantism of some anti-spammers is potentially even more dangerous than spam itself. Some cautionary tales are given, but even illegal action by anti-spammers appears to be given tacit approval. The abiding impression, and it's difficult to shake off, is that you are being asked to join a crusade.
Nevertheless, Stopping Spam is informative and useful and has its entertaining moments, although for ISPs and system administrators it will probably be too lightweight, with little that they don't know already. In such a short book (aproximately 150 pages) some better examples, omitting irrelevant clutter, would help. But for those who need to get a grasp of the issues involved, Stopping Spam is certainly worth reading.