ADSL

See DSL

AWL (Auto White List)

A list of senders of ham emails, generated automatically

Bayesian filter

A spam filter based on Bayesian mathematics

Blacklist

A list of email addresses or machines that are known to send spam

Blocklist

A list of machines that are known to send spam

Bouncing (an email)

The act of refusing an email by a server

CAN-SPAM

US anti-spam law passed in 2003

Cable modem

A method of connecting to the Internet via a cable television system

Content hiding

Hiding the true content of a spam email

Corpus (plural: corpora)

A collection of emails, normally used to train or test a spam filter

Dial-up

A method of connecting to the Internet via the telephone system; dial-up is considerably slower than DSL

Domain Name System (DNS)

A method of translating a human-readable name into the numeric form used by computers

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)

A method of connecting to the Internet via the telephone system

ADSL

Asymmetric DSL

SDSL

Symmetric DSL

Deprecated

A obsolete feature that should no longer be used

Term

Definition/Explanation

Email content database

A database of emails that have been sent or received

Email filter

A software program that can separate emails based on characteristics

FTC

US Federal Trade Commission

Ham

The opposite of spam; an email that is wanted

Header

Lines at the top of an email that describe the email, its content, and details about its delivery

Header analysis (email header analysis)

Examining the headers on an email, to determine its source, the program that created it, or the path it took to each its destination

HTML (HyperText Markup Language)

A protocol for presenting information on the World Wide Web

Hop

One part of the path an email takes from source to destination; emails may take many hops before they are delivered, or there may be a single hop

IMAP

Internet Message Access Protocol, a method of retrieving emails from a server

ISP (Internet Service Provider)

A company that provides connection to the Internet and often other services such as email addresses

Internet

A global network of interlinked computers

Local Delivery Agent (LDA)

Software responsible for processing a user’s email; procmail is an example

Lint

In computing terms, to test that something is clean

Mail Delivery Agent (MDA)

Another term for MTA

Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)

The software that accepts emails and delivers or forwards them

Mail Exchange (MX)

A DNS record that describes where the emails for a domain should be delivered

Maildir

A file format for storing emails in—each email is a separate file in a directory

mailto:

A method of providing a clickable link in a web page that directly invokes the mail client to send email to the intended recipient

Term

Definition/Explanation

Malware

Software that performs bad actions, such as allowing a remote user to send spam or examine files on the computer

Mbox

A file format for storing emails in—all emails are held together in a single file

Munge

To deliberately hide an email address, usually for display on the WWW or Usenet

NAS (Network Attached Storage)

Hard disks that can be accessed via a network connection

NFS (Network File System)

A method of sharing storage between several computers

Negative rules

Rules to detect non-spam email

Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP)

The method of transferring data for Usenet

Open Relay Blacklist (ORB/ORBL)

A list of sites that may be considered to be open relays

Open relay

A computer that allows unauthenticated users to send emails

Phishing

The act of tricking users into visiting a fake site and collecting their account details

Post Office Protocol (POP3)

A method of retrieving email from a server

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID)

A way of storing the same data redundantly on multiple hard disks to optimize I/O usage and improve performance

System Activity Reporter (SAR)

A tool for monitoring system usage and performance

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

The standard used to transmit email—due to limitations it imposes on the receiving end, SMTP is used in conjunction with other protocols such as POP3 or IMAP

Sender Permitted From (SPF)

An emerging standard that validates which machines a user is permitted to send email from

Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

A method of encrypting data across a network connection

Sender Permitted Form (SPF)

A method of authenticating an email by linking the sender’s address and a list of machines that they might legitimately use.

Term

Definition/Explanation

Sender validation

Validating the sender of an email

Spam

An unwanted, uninvited email that sells something

Spammer

A person who sends spam emails

Statistical Filter

A method of detecting spam email using mathematical techniques

Swap space

Disk space used by a computer to improve performance by swapping contents of memory into it when the associated process is idle

Thrashing

The act of a computer using the disk excessively due to high system load

Trojan

Software that appears to be benign, but actually contains harmful functions; an example of malware

UBE (Unsolicited Bulk Email)

Spam

UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email)

Spam

Whitelist

A list of users or machines that can be trusted to send non-spam emails; see also AWL

Web bug

A hidden image in an email that allows the spammer to track information about individual recipients of emails

Web server

A software that creates and sends web pages, or a computer that the web server software runs on

Usenet

A network of computers that store and display messages subdivided into newsgroups