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Spam Goes Global: What Can be Done? 全球垃圾邮件泛滥成灾了：怎么办？

课文朗读

课文讲解

繁體中文譯本

Because of the sheer enormity of the United States economy, it’s little surprise that up to 90 percent of the world’s spam originates in America. But as American spammers come under increasing pressure from lawmakers and ISPs, many anticipate that spammers will simply relocate to countries with emerging Internet technology.

因为整个美国的经济规模庞大得令人咋舌，所以全世界几乎百分之九十的垃圾信源自于美国一点也不令人惊奇。不过美国的垃圾信差面临来自立法者和网络服务供货商【注】的压力愈来愈大，很多人认为垃圾信差迟早都会转进阵地到其他网络科技正在起步的国家。

One critical barrier to spam is the Realtime Blackhole List (RBL) maintained by the nonprofit group Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS). Unlike the SPEWS list maintained by the anti-spam group Spamhaus, MAPS will not blacklist unless it has attempted to contact a spammer’s IP address and received no reply. Currently, the RBL protects between one-third and one-half of all e-mail accounts, including Hotmail and AOL.

由非营利团体「防止滥用邮件系统（MAPS）」所维护的一份「实时黑洞名单（RBL）」是抵挡垃圾邮件的重要方案。它不同于反垃圾信阵营(Spamhaus)所建立起的「垃圾信早期预警系统(SPEWS)【注】」维护的名单，MAPS的黑洞名单是在他们联络垃圾信差的IP地址未果后才将之入列到黑名单里。如今实时黑洞名单负责保护美国境内全部近三分之一到二分之一的电子信箱账号，其中包括微软的Hotmail和美国在线AOL在内。

According to MAPs, spam originating in China is increasing. Because of China’s vulnerable, older software and less stringent enforcement, the RBL lists an increasing number of Chinese IP addresses. In response to this growing problem, the Internet Society of China (ISC) announced that it would block 127 servers it identified as sources of spam; this list falls far short of the 633 spam servers indentified by Spamhaus.

根据「防止滥用邮件系统(MAPS)」的数据，来自中国的垃圾邮件在急速增加中。因为中国使用的软件较老旧，容易侵入，而且执法较不严峻，所以实时黑洞名单(RBL)上列出的网址愈来愈多位于中国境内。为响应这种愈演愈烈的问题，中国互联网协会(ISC)宣布它将阻挡127个被它认定是垃圾邮件源头的服务器；这份名单相形之下比反垃圾信阵营(Spamhaus)认定的633个垃圾邮件源头少得多。

But China and the U.S. are hardly alone on the RBL. A fuller list includes Singapore, South Korea, Germany, England, Spain, and Taiwan.

不过不仅是中国和美国被列在实时黑洞名单(RBL)上而已。一份较完整的名单连新加坡、南韩、德国、英国、西班牙、和台湾都列名其上。

【注】：缩写ISP代表「网络服务供货商Internet Service Provider」

【注】：缩写SPEWS代表「垃圾信早期预警系统Spam Prevention Early Warning System」

Vocabulary

单词发音

spam【计算机】垃圾邮件（在用户网络或新闻组中，一大堆未经筛选的广告或对收件者来说根本无用的邮件）

enormity [ɪˋnɔrmətɪ] n.【口】巨大，深远

come under 遭受

relocate [riˋloket] v. 移迁; 搬迁

critical [ˋkrɪtɪk!] adj. 紧要的，关键性的

blacklist [ˋblæk͵lɪst] n. 黑名单

currently [ˋkɝəntlɪ] adv. 现时﹐当前

vulnerable [ˋvʌlnərəb!] adj. 易受攻击[责难]的

stringent [ˋstrɪndʒənt] adj. 严格的(规则/测验/条件)

fall short of 达不到

alone [əˋlon] adj. 单独的，独自的

full [fʊl] adj.（程度等）完全的

Sentence of the Day

Blocking spammers is really only papering over the cracks.

阻挡垃圾信差实际上是治标不治本。

paper over the cracks (尤指仓促或有漏洞)隐瞒或掩饰分歧(或错误、困难)

课文讲解

The United States recently passed its first federal legislation regulating spam. Known as the “Can-Spam Act,” this legislation makes it illegal to send bulk unsolicited e-mail without an opt-out feature and two valid addresses – physical and e-mail. Anti-spam advocates have criticized the law as “giving each marketer in the United States one free shot at each consumer’s e-mail inbox.”

美国最近通过了第一项联邦法案用来规范垃圾邮件。这一回通过的「反垃圾信法案」条款【注】规定，倘若发件人没有设定让收件者「选择退出」的功能，而且也没有同时具备实体邮址与电子邮址两者，则不请自来的大宗电子邮件都算是违法。反垃圾信人士批评这法案形同是「给在美国的垃圾信营销商每一记合法免费的散弹，准他打到每位消费者的电子信箱里去」。

The U.K., Italy, and E.U. have also recently passed their first anti-spam laws. However, most view these laws pessimistically because European governments cannot reach the sources of most spam.

英国、意大利、和欧盟也在最近第一次通过了他们的反垃圾邮件法。不过，多数人对这些法律是抱持悲观的态度，因为欧洲的政府并没有办法真正地处理到绝大多数垃圾邮件的源头。

A novel solution has recently been proposed by Microsoft. Dubbed the “Penny Black” project after the scheme that revolutionized Britain’s postal service in the 1830s, Microsoft proposes that senders of e-mail, just like senders of postal mail, pay for the service. This payment, however, wouldn’t be money, but approximately ten seconds of processing time that a sender’s computer would “spend” to solve simple cryptographic puzzles. A ten-second delay would slow spammers down to about 8,000, instead of millions, of daily e-mails. With such greatly reduced profit margins, spamming would, hopefully, become economicallyunviable.

有一种全新的解决方案最近由微软提出来。被称做「小黑」的这项计划模仿了1830年代曾经替英国邮政服务带来革命性变革的设计架构，微软建议把寄电子信视同寄发正常邮件一般也必须付费。只不过所付的费用不是金钱，而是大约十秒钟的处理时间，寄送者的计算机必须花这时间来解开系统密码。仅十秒钟的时间延宕，就能把垃圾信差每日寄发垃圾邮件的数目由几百万降至八千之谱。因为获利骤降至此，垃圾信差的经济效益很可能──至少希望如此──将变得微不足道。

Despite the shortcoming of the many approaches to regulating spam, even the harshest critic must admit they are steps in the right direction.

虽然各种整顿垃圾信的方法都有短处，不过即使最严苛的批评者也得承认，这些步骤绝对朝正确方向在迈进中。

【注】：英文原名为「Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act」，「Can-Spam Act」是acronym由首字母组合而成。

－by William F. Levings

Vocabulary

单词发音

unsolicited [͵ʌnsəˋlɪsɪtɪd] adj. 未经请求的；主动提供的

opt-out【口】退出

valid [ˋvælɪd] adj. 合法的；有效的

advocate [ˋædvəkɪt] n. 提倡者；拥护者

free shot [体]无人防守射门

pessimistically [pɛsəˋmɪstɪklɪ] adv. 悲观地

novel [ˋnɑv!] adj. 新的; 新颖的; 新奇的

propose [prəˋpoz] v. 提议，建议，提出

scheme [skim] n. 系统，体制，结构

cryptographic [͵krɪptəˋgræfɪk] adj. 关于暗号的，用密码写的

puzzle [ˋpʌz!] n.（游戏的）猜谜

profit margin 利润率﹐盈利率

unviable [ʌnˋvaɪəb!] adj. 不可行的

shortcoming [ˋʃɔrt͵kʌmɪŋ] n. 缺点，短处

Sentence of the Day

Microsoft’s proposal would slow spam down to a snail’s pace.

微软的建议让垃圾邮件速度慢得像牛步。

at a snail’s pace  非常缓慢地