Anti-spam group Open Relay Behavior Modification System (ORBS) has closed its doors.
New Zealand-based ORBS maintained a list of the Internet protocol addresses of computers used by alleged spammers that allowed open relays to send unsolicited commercial e-mail. The list was monitored by various Internet service providers and others that blocked mail from those listed.
The reasons for the shutdown are unclear. Alan Brown, the site’s operator, said through an e-mail Wednesday that he was unable to talk about the situation.
However, on May 22, Brown posted a message on a Web-based news chat service frequented by that stated he had been served with injunctions by a high New Zealand court ordering the removal of several ORBS listings.
The listings were for two New Zealand-based companies, Actrix Networks Limited listed for its mailservers and networks and Telecom Corporation of NZ Limited, identified for its mailservers and networks, Brown said in the chat.
A week later, Brown said that the ORBS Web site was closed for reasons unconnected with the proceedings involving the two companies.
“ORBS was well intentioned, and did a remarkable job of encouraging companies who were careless about their mail systems to change,” said Rodney Joffe, the chairman of Centergate Research Group and Whitehat in Tempe, AZ. “However ORBS crossed the line some time ago when it became a personal vehicle for retribution. Hopefully an honorable replacement can be found, perhaps from the MAPS [Mail Abuse Prevention System] organization.”
At the group’s Web site, www.orbs.org., a message reads, “Due to circumstances beyond our control, the ORBS Web site is no longer available.”
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