Bill et al, The ISP is NOT doing its job! I work for one (local, not-for-profit) and we educate our members to ensure that their OS firewalls are up, run a test to see if any router ports are accessible from the outside (we use https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2, but I'm sure there are other test site that do the same), and most importantly, ensure that not only is the OS updated, but also the combo modem/router! (DSL or cable).
A few years ago it was found that a commonly used freeware (Allegro's RomPager) was embedded in many combo modems/routers had a flaw (see http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/561444) since 2002(!) that got fixed in 2005 but was never implemented. It took a CERT announcement to force the manufacturer's of all affected units to issue a firmware fix. So, we announce it on our web page and invited members to either do the update themselves or we'll do it for them. Your ISP should be on the lookout for such things. The ISP should be able to implement spam filters - and some are free (I know because we are cheap), but in general spam is a pain to deal with - the spammers are not sitting idle. Aside from the ISP doing its required filtering, you could implement some filtering of your own, if the messages are can grouped so that the filters (rules) can do what you intend to do. Takes some time and experimenting, and may not be foolproof - some spam will get through. Hope this and the other messages help you. Cheers, Naftali On 18 November 2016 at 09:02, Bill Spencer <wspen...@jhu.edu> wrote: Hi there: My wife has lately been getting spam emails, allegedly from her > email provider, which include links to click to resolve "problems"--you > know the drill. She has not taken the bait, but when I contacted the > provider on her behalf to triple-check that her account is still in the > clear, I got quite a lengthy sales pitch for all sorts of Mac-related > anti-virus and security stuff that they want us to buy. I have never really > worried about that sort of thing in the past, but times do change and I > thought I would see what the received wisdom is nowadays about the need for > such programs...and if there *is *a need, what to install. She's on > 10.10.5 and I'm on 10.11.something. > > (FYI, she does not want to switch email providers, even to save the $100 > or so a year, because of the understandable headache of notifying everyone, > changing her business cards, her website, etc., and needing/wanting to keep > her old messages in one place.) > > As always, my thanks in advance! > > ***************** > > Bill Spencer in Maryland > Older iMac and newer Mini, OS-es as above. > -- You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to imaclist@googlegroups.com To leave this group, send email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "iMac Group" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
