kurt wismer

Virus Guy wrote:
> Kurt wismer wrote:
>
>> first:
>> a spammer has 2 choices, he can make his spam more readable
>
> but more filterable
>
>> or he can make his spam more obfuscated
>
> less likely to be auto-filtered, but also less likely to be opened
>
>> while better readability is no guarantee of greater sales,
>> less reach *is* a guarantee of fewer sales...
>
> Reach is a function of the size of a spam run. That being equal, it
> becomes a question as to what spam will suffer more from filtering vs
> from failure to open the attachment.

and gateway filters can prevent the spam from reaching entire domains...

>> while pdf viewers may not be technically a standard part of
>> the os they are *effectively* a standard part of the os...
>> just as flash-based ads on the web are effective despite
>> flash not coming pre-installed,
>
> Poor example.
>
> Flash content is (usually) auto-rendered on a web page. PDF content
> is NOT auto-rendered as a component of a page being viewed.

??? ok, so pdf content is auto-rendered as the entire page instead of
just a portion, is that distinction really significant?

>> pdf-based spam can be effective without acrobat coming
>> pre-installed...
>
> And if it remains un-installed on a given system - what then?

in that unlikely event then it will not be effective...

>> when it comes to formats this popular the question of whether
>> the reader comes pre-installed simply does not matter...
>
> You are not correctly appraising the importance or exposure of the PDF
> format to the typical person who responds to spam.
>
> I could say that people who knowingly install acrobat on their systems
> probably belong to the demographic of people who are least likely to
> act on or respond to spam.

i'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you believe that pdf's
are only used by a technically sophisticated minority rather than the
majority...

this in spite the fact that pdf long ago became the de facto standard
for printable documents from government forms to online product
documentation to press releases and reports and to bus schedules and
route maps (not to mention the fact that it's a major e-book format,
that sample chapters from conventional books are released in that
format, and that it comes pre-installed on machines from dell)...

if you *really* believe that only a technically sophisticated minority
are likely to be consumers of printable documents then i don't think
this need go any further...

--
"it's not the right time to be sober
now the idiots have taken over
spreading like a social cancer,
is there an answer?"