DSPAM
Encyclopedia
DSPAM is a free software
statistical spam filter written by Jonathan A. Zdziarski, author of the book Ending Spam (ISBN 1593270526) and other books. It is intended to be a scalable
, content-based spam filter for large multi-user
systems. DSPAM is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
.
The project consists of a library, libdspam, which contains the core filtering and storage routines, and command-line and web-based interfaces. DSPAM is MTA
-independent, can store spam classification data in a number of database
formats, and uses bayesian filtering
, among other techniques, to learn and adapt to spam.
DSPAM's original author claims that some users of DSPAM have reported as high as 99.5 to 99.95 % accuracy, including “best recorded levels of accuracy ... 99.991 % by one avid user (2 errors in 22,786) and 99.987 % by the author.” However, at the spam filter test performed at TREC
2005 the best-performing DSPAM configuration had misclassification rates worse than other filters in the test and below stated levels of accuracy. Zdziarski protests these results.
The rights to the project were sold to Sensory Networks in May 2007. Development of DSPAM resumed in December 2007, with Sensory Networks publishing 27 community-created patches to the CVS tree, along with a new PHP-based WebUI in development. A fork of dspam, dspam-community, was registered at SourceForge on October 10, 2008.
On January 7, 2009, Mick Johnson of Sensory Networks announced that they are “looking at shutting down the hosting for the Dspam server by the end of January.” On January 12, 2009, Mick sent a follow-up email, stating that “We are handing over the trademarks, copyright to the Dspam source, the Dspam website, and administration of these mailing lists” to “the crew at dspam-community.”
DSPAM and dspam-community merged in January 2009 and the development of the project has continued since under the name DSPAM, driven by a community and developers and users.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
statistical spam filter written by Jonathan A. Zdziarski, author of the book Ending Spam (ISBN 1593270526) and other books. It is intended to be a scalable
Scalability
In electronics scalability is the ability of a system, network, or process, to handle growing amount of work in a graceful manner or its ability to be enlarged to accommodate that growth...
, content-based spam filter for large multi-user
Multi-user
Multi-user is a term that defines an operating system or application software that allows concurrent access by multiple users of a computer. Time-sharing systems are multi-user systems. Most batch processing systems for mainframe computers may also be considered "multi-user", to avoid leaving the...
systems. DSPAM is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
The project consists of a library, libdspam, which contains the core filtering and storage routines, and command-line and web-based interfaces. DSPAM is MTA
Mail transfer agent
Within Internet message handling services , a message transfer agent or mail transfer agent or mail relay is software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another using a client–server application architecture...
-independent, can store spam classification data in a number of database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
formats, and uses bayesian filtering
Bayesian filtering
Bayesian filtering may refer to:* Bayesian spam filtering, a method to detect spam.* Recursive Bayesian estimation, a method to estimate the state of a system evolving in time.* Bayes' theorem...
, among other techniques, to learn and adapt to spam.
DSPAM's original author claims that some users of DSPAM have reported as high as 99.5 to 99.95 % accuracy, including “best recorded levels of accuracy ... 99.991 % by one avid user (2 errors in 22,786) and 99.987 % by the author.” However, at the spam filter test performed at TREC
TREC
TREC may refer to:* Techniques de Randonnée Équestre de Compétition or Trec, an equestrian discipline* Text REtrieval Conference, an on-going series of workshops co-sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S...
2005 the best-performing DSPAM configuration had misclassification rates worse than other filters in the test and below stated levels of accuracy. Zdziarski protests these results.
The rights to the project were sold to Sensory Networks in May 2007. Development of DSPAM resumed in December 2007, with Sensory Networks publishing 27 community-created patches to the CVS tree, along with a new PHP-based WebUI in development. A fork of dspam, dspam-community, was registered at SourceForge on October 10, 2008.
On January 7, 2009, Mick Johnson of Sensory Networks announced that they are “looking at shutting down the hosting for the Dspam server by the end of January.” On January 12, 2009, Mick sent a follow-up email, stating that “We are handing over the trademarks, copyright to the Dspam source, the Dspam website, and administration of these mailing lists” to “the crew at dspam-community.”
DSPAM and dspam-community merged in January 2009 and the development of the project has continued since under the name DSPAM, driven by a community and developers and users.