16th
January
2004
So Far, So Good
“It’s about a year now since A Plan for Spam. So far, filters are winning. This article analyzes the tricks spammers have tried to beat them, and offers some suggestions for the future. Bayesian filters are now common enough that we’re starting to see spams designed specifically to get past them. So far these tricks aren’t working. My filtering rate is still over 99.7%, and Brian Burton reports an astonishing 99.9% with his multi-word Bayesian SpamProbe.”