Blackholing My Email
6 hours ago
- #online_identity
- #email_worms
- #2000s_internet
- In 2002, the author had to blackhole his primary email address [email protected] to prevent their broadband account from being terminated due to excessive email worm traffic.
- Early 2000s email worms, like ILOVEYOU and Klez, evolved to harvest addresses from any text files on hard disks, causing widespread infections.
- The author's email address was listed in Counter-Strike map files (e.g., de_dust.txt), making it vulnerable to worms as the game was installed on many internet-connected computers.
- Initially, the inbox received hundreds of worm emails daily, manageable with a POP3 tool, but soon escalated to thousands, filling the 15MB mailbox and risking account closure.
- Worm authors used random subject lines, spoofed sender addresses, and other tricks to evade detection, leading to accusations against the author for sending worms.
- BT Customer Service blackholed the email address to protect the account and email service, stopping the flood and preventing bounce emails to spoofed addresses.
- 24 years later, the BT account still exists, but [email protected] is non-existent, returning 'User unknown' errors, with no ability to create new inboxes.