A survey of anti-spam mechanisms and their usage from a Regional Internet Registry's perspective

Abstract

This paper specifically deals with the different policies and technical frameworks at a Regional Internet Registry (RIR) level in terms of anti-spam measures. It also exposes the issue of spam from an Internet registry perspective, as an important element of the Internet technical infrastructure. We found out that, an RIR itself is not mandated to fight spam but it maintains a registry that is of paramount importance for traceability of Internet Number Resources ownership information. The paper starts with describing the challenges faced by operators followed by the different sources of spam. It then exposes the different mechanisms deployed by RIRs but importantly, this paper shows how those mechanisms either technical or policy-oriented are mostly underutilised, although they are operational. The latter is achieved by taking AFRINIC, the African RIR as case study.