The Net Abuse Jargon File
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by Andrew Nellis
bs904@freenet.carleton.ca
This list may be freely archived and distributed, provided no
changes are made to the actual content of the list.
The following is a list of terms, acronyms, and abbreviations used in the
net-abuse forum. Many of the words are specific to this community, though
some are also widely used elsewhere with a similar meaning. (Last updated
on September 14, 1998)
404 compliant --------- The status of a website which has been completely
removed, usually by the administrators of the
hosting site as a result of net abuse by those
who operated the website. The term is a tongue-
in-cheek reference to the standard "301 compliant"
Murkowski Bill disclaimer used by spammers. [see
also: Murking, spammer, spamvertise]
AB -------------------- "AfterBurner" Pseudonym used by the person who
operates the abuse desk at Erols ISP. Legendary
anti-spam advocate widely known for his fast and
effective termination of spammer accounts. [see
also: Golden Mallet, ISP, spam, TOSsed]
AFAIK ----------------- "as far as I know"
AFAICS ---------------- "as far as I can see"
AUP ------------------- "acceptable use policy" The policy of a given
ISP which sets out what the ISP considers to be
(un)acceptable uses of its Internet resources.
[see also: ISP, TOS]
BI -------------------- "Breidbart Index" The Breidbart Index is the
mathematical formula, named for its originator,
Seth Breidbart, used by Usenet despammers to
judge whether a given posting is spam and can be
legitimately cancelled. Currently, anything with
a BI of 20 is considered spam. There are several
variants (such as BI2) but these are not widely
used. [see also: EMP]
binary bomb ----------- The posting of an extremely large number of binary-
encoded articles, usually in a series of thousands,
designed to flood and disrupt a Usenet newsgroup.
[see also: DOS attack, EMP]
bit bucket ------------ As a noun, it refers to the metaphorical location
where any Internet communication goes which is
junked before it reaches its intended target. As
a verb, it refers to the act of doing so. [see
also: blackhole]
thee BlueList --------- A list of well-known anti-spam activists, used by
spammers to target these people for harassment. The
full name is "Thee BlueList of Internet Complainers"
and is maintained by someone known only as Thee
BlueLister, whose trademark is spelling "the" as
"thee." The current incarnation is known as the
Brown List. [see also: Netscum]
blackhole ------------- Either an e-mail account which silently and
invisibly deletes all mail sent to it, or the
act of doing so. [see also: bit bucket]
BOFH ------------------ "bastard operator from hell"
brandystorming -------- Repeatedly cancelling Usenet postings to the NANA
hierarchy, despite having them continously reposted
by Dave the Resurrector. Named after the first
person to have done so, Brandy Alexandre. Also
known as brandybombing. [see also: DtR, NANA, rogue
cancel]
BTW ------------------- "by the way"
the Cabal ------------- An apocryphal organization said to run the entire
Internet, made up of system administrators, anti-
spam activists, and despammers. In common usage,
it refers to those who frequent the NANA newsgroups.
[see also: lumber cartel, NANA, net.kook, TINC]
cancelbot ------------- An automated or semi-automated program which will
issue a cancel message for a Usenet posting.
cascade --------------- A long series of postings, each quoting all the
ones previous, with only a small addition to the
entir quoted material. Tends to produce an
aesthetic cascading pattern in the quoted portion
as it grows. Considered by many as a form of net
abuse. [see also: meow, the Nose]
CAUCE ----------------- "Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail"
A volunteer-run lobbying organization created to
oppose junk e-mail. CAUCE's homepage can be found
at: . [see also: UBE,
UCE]
C&C ------------------- "coffee & cats" Used in the subject in postings
to the NANA newsgroups to indicate that the posting
is humorous. Meant as a non-serious warning that
the posting may cause sudden laughter, and thus the
spilling of coffee and upsetting of cats near the
reader. [see also: NANA]
clue-by-four ---------- A tip given to someone who appears to be grossly
ignorant of the information being imparted. [see
also: LART, Sam-o-Gram]
CP -------------------- "CyberPromo" The company owned by Sanford Wallace,
widely considered one of the first junk e-mailing
businesses. Easily the single most hated company
on the entire Internet. [see also: Spamford, UBE,
UCE]
deboursify ------------ The act of removing inappropriate or non-existant
newsgroups from the Newsgroups: header when replying
to an article. Named for Stephen "Speedbump" Boursy,
who is infamous for his excessive crossposting. [see
also: ECP, sneck]
DOS attack ------------ "denial-of-service attack" Any activity designed to
disrupt the normal online activities of a domain or
user, typically a mailbomb or a ping storm. [see
also: binary bomb, mailbomb, ping storm, win nuke]
drop box -------------- An account used by a spammer solely for the purpose
of forwarding e-mail to their "real" e-mail address,
since they lose their throwaway accounts with such
frequency. [see also: throwaway account]
DtR ------------------- "Dave the Resurrector" An automated program which
reposts all cancelled articles in the NANA
newsgroups in order to thwart disruption through
mass rogue cancels by spammers, a common occurance
there. [see also: NANA]
ECP ------------------- "excessive cross-posting" Adding a large number or
irrelevant newsgroups to the Newsgroups: line of a
Usenet posting. Considered to be a form of net
abuse, but much less abusive than EMP. [see also:
deboursify, EMP, sneck]
EMP ------------------- "excessive multi-posting" Posting a substantively
identical message numerous times to one or more
Usenet newsgroups. [see also: Breidbart Index,
ECP]
ESAD ------------------ "eat shit and die"
FAQ ------------------- "frequently asked questions"
FAQE ------------------ A false, untrue, or inaccurate FAQ. Pronounced
"fake." [see also: FAQ]
flame ----------------- An angry or insulting reply to a newsgoup posting,
or the act of doing so. [see also: troll]
FOAD ------------------ "fuck off and die"
free speach ----------- Term used ironically to refer to an apocryphal
'right' often claimed by spammers to support their
theft of services. Deliberately misspelled to
differentiate between actual free speech rights.
Term originated as a result of the frequent
misspellings of the term by spammers. Sometimes
also referred to as 'frea speach.'
FWIW ------------------ "for what it's worth"
FYI ------------------- "for your information"
GoAT ------------------ "go away troll" [see also: troll]
Golden Mallet --------- An unofficial award given by consensus in the NANA
newsgroups for meritorious activities in the anti-
spam community. The first recipient of a Golden
Mallet award was AfterBurner. [see also: AB, mallet,
NANA]
HAND ------------------ "have a nice day"
HTH ------------------- "happy to help"
IANAL ----------------- "I am not a lawyer"
IIRC ------------------ "if I remember/recall correctly"
IKYABWAI -------------- "I know you are but what am I" Often used in a
derogatory sense when someone has said this using
other words, to point out the childishness of such
a tactic.
IMHO ------------------ "in my humble opinion"
IMNSHO ---------------- "in my not so humble opinion"
IMO ------------------- "in my opinion"
IDP ------------------- "internet death penalty" Often written incorrectly
in place of UDP. An Internet Death Penalty refers
to complete shunning at the router level of all
mail and packets, as well as Usenet messages, from
the offending domain(s). [see also: rogue, UDP]
ISP ------------------- "internet service provider"
IOW ------------------- "in other words"
joe ------------------- To 'joe' someone is to forge e-mail messages or
Usenet postings so as to make another person or
domain appear responsible for it. Usually done
in order to harass the person or domain being joed.
Named for joes.com, an ISP which was damaged as a
result of being joed.
kook ------------------ An extremely eccentric, irrational, or certifiably
insane person, generally (though not always) held
to be annoying but harmless. [see also: net.kook]
Kook Kabal ------------ Often held to refer (incorrectly) to any member of
Dave Hayes' Freedom Knights organization. More
accurately, it refers to a specific group of
net.kooks who frequent the NANA newsgroups and
make serious references to the Cabal (TINC). [see
also: Cabal, kook, NANA, net.kook, TINC]
LART ------------------ "loser attitude readjustment tool" Often used as a
verb to mean any punitive action taken against a net
abuser. [see also: peepee slap]
Lumber Cartel --------- Apocryphal organization which some junk e-mailers
claim are paying those who oppose spam. According
to the spammers, the lumber companies fear a loss in
profits as a result of people using junk e-mail rather
than paper junk mail. [see also: the cabal, TINC]
mailbomb -------------- An extremely large number of and/or excessively
large pieces of e-mail sent to a single e-mail
address, designed to make using that mailbox
extremel difficult or impossible. [see also: DOS
attack]
mallet ---------------- A large, heavy hammer. Often said to be used in a
metaphorical sense when delivering an especially
powerful LART. [see also: Golden Mallet, LART]
meow ------------------ The activities and motto of the Nosers. Activities
such as trolling, cascading, and newsgroup invasions
are referred to as meowing. [see also: cascade, the
Nose, troll]
MLM ------------------- "multi-level marketting" Any kind of money-making
scheme which requires the recruitment of other
people who will, in turn, recruit still more
people. [see also: MMF]
MMF ------------------- "make money fast" Refers to any kind of scheme
which promises participants large profits with
little or no risk or effort. Typically, it is a
some kind of MLM operation which involves
recruiting more members, or an illegal pyramid
scam. The term is also used to refer to any
kind of spam which promotes this. [see also:
spam, MLM]
munging --------------- The falsification of one's own e-mail address on a
Usenet posting in such a way that a human can figure
out what the real address is, but a program cannot.
This is done to evade e-mail address harvesting
programs used by spammers to target their junk e-mail.
Both mung and munge are accepted alternate spellings.
[see also: UBE, UCE]
Murk ------------------ A piece of UBE which includes a disclaimer which
makes reference to the American legislation proposed
by Senator Murkowski, generally considered to be
advantageous to spammers. To send such a piece of
UBE is referred to as Murking, and to receive one
is to be Murked. [see also: 404 compliant, spammer,
UBE]
NANA ------------------ "news.admin.net-abuse.*" Refers to the newsgroups,
collectively, that make up the NANA hierarchy. Each
individual newsgroup is often referred to by adding
a letter to NANA. For example, NANAU would refer
to news.admin.net-abuse.usenet. Sometimes referred
to as NAN-A or N.A.N-A as well. [see also: the
Cabal]
Netscum --------------- Term used by the Kook Kabal to refer to any person
they believe to be a member of the Cabal (TINC). It
also refers to the name of the website on which the
Kook Kabal post personal, libelous, and frequently
incorrect data about people they claim are Netscum.
Currently defunct. [see also: the Cabal, Kook Kabal,
net.kook, TINC]
net.kook -------------- A person whose online Internet activities (usually
Usenet postings) make them appear to be a kook.
[see also: kook, Kook Kabal]
the Nose -------------- This refers to the alt.fan.karl-malden.nose
newsgroup, which is the current headquarters of the
Meowers. The purpose of the newsgroup is to provide
a base of operations from which to harass or destroy
other newsgroups. Past bases of operations have
included alt.syntax.tactical and alt.bigfoot. [see
also: cascade, meow, troll]
open server ----------- A mail or news server which is unsecured and permits
anyone to use it, making it possible for spammers
to abuse it. [see also: relay rape, spam]
peepee slap ----------- A dressing down or warning from an ISP to one of
their users, usually as a result of complaints by
others about the user's online behaviour. [see also:
LART, TOSsed]
ping storm ------------ A flood of "pings" (simple server requests normally
used to check net conditions) designed to disrupt the
normal activity of a system. [see also: DOS attack]
plonk ----------------- Written when first placing someone into a Usenet
kill-file, so that the person being plonked will be
aware that poster will no longer see any of the
plonked person's postings. The word is said to be
the sound effect of a name being dropped into a
kill-file. [see also: sneck]
Pot. Kettle. Black. --- Refers to the aphorism: "the pot calling the kettle
black." Used when indicating that a person is
accusing someone else of something the accuser is
him- or herself guilty of.
RBL ------------------- "Realtime Black List" A list maintained by Paul
Vixie and his associates, of domains and IP
addresses known to be sources of large amounts of
junk e-mail. This list is used by many ISPs to
assist them in blocking UBE/UCE by blocking all
e-mail from blacklisted domains. The list is
updated every few minutes, in 'realtime.' [see
also: ISP, UBE, UCE]
relay rape ------------ The hijacking of a third party's unsecured mail
server to deliver junk e-mail.
RFMS ------------------ "Rapid Fire Mail Server" A piece of junk e-mailing
software which connects direct-to-MX with the mail
system of the targets. This was mistakenly thought
by the people who used it to successfully hide their
identity, but in fact made it easier for them to be
traced. For this reason, it is also known as the
Rapidly Falling Mallet Summoner. [see also: junk
e-mail, mallet, UBE, UCE]
rogue ----------------- An ISP which permits net abuse (usually in the form
of spamming or UBE) by its customers, or which itself
engages in such activities. Rogue ISPs are sometimes
subject to IDPs or UDPs. Sometimes deliberately
mispelled as "rouge." [see also: IDP, ISP, UDP]
rogue cancel ---------- A Usenet cancel message which was issued for a
non-legitimate reason. [see also: cancelbot]
RTFM ------------------ "read the fucking manual"
Sam-o-Gram ------------ A sternly-worded piece of e-mail sent by Sam, a
well-known NANAE contributor, to a person or system
which has demonstrated a need for a blue-by-four.
These letters also generally posted publicly to
NANAE at the time they're sent. [see also: clue-
by-four, NANA]
sneck ----------------- Written when deboursifying a follow-up to a Usenet
posting. Said to be the sound effect made by doing
so. [see also: deboursify, plonk]
Spamford -------------- The nickname of Sanford Wallace, the owner of
CyberPromo and one of the most despised men on the
entire Internet. Alternate nicknames include:
Spamfraud, Scamford, and Scamfraud. The last name
of Wallace is often replaced with Wideass. [see
also: CP]
spam ------------------ A tinned luncheon meat made by Hormel. Originally
held to mean any Usenet posting made an excessive
number of times, it has now come to include any
form of deliberate net abuse, including UBE/UCE.
The term is taken from the infamous Monty Python
'Viking skit.' [see also: ECP, EMP, UBE, UCE]
spammer --------------- One who engages in the sending of spam or UBE/UCE.
[see also: spam, UBE, UCE]
spamvertise ----------- To promote a product, service, or website through
the use of spam/UBE/UCE. [see also: spam, UBE, UCE]
TANSTAAFL ------------- "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch"
throwaway account ----- An inexpensive Internet account purchased on an ISP
by a spammer for the the sole purpose of spamming,
knowing in advance that this account will get TOSsed
as a result. [see also: drop box, ISP, TOSsed]
TIA ------------------- "thanks in advance"
TINC ------------------ "there is no Cabal" Normally used when making a
facaetious reference to the Cabal (TINC) by adding
it after the word, in brackets. [see also: the
Cabal, Kook Kabal, NANA, Netscum, TINLC]
TINLC ----------------- "there is no Lumber Cartel" Normally used when
making a facaetious reference to the Lumber Cartel
(TINLC) by adding it after the word, in brackets.
[see also: Lumber Cartel, NANA, TINC]
TINW ------------------ "there is no we" Normally used after making a
reference to "we" in a NANA newsgroup, to indicate
that the poster is aware the net-abuse community is
not a single homogenous group of people of identical
goals. [see also: NANA, TINC, TINLC]
TOS ------------------- "terms of service" Contract signed when joining an
ISP, which states what activities are and are not
permitted by the ISP, what the responsibilities of
the customer are, and what the responsibilities of
the ISP are. [see also: AUP, ISP, TOSsed]
TOSsed ---------------- Being kicked off an ISP for breaking the AUP or TOS.
Alternate spelling is TOSed. [see also: AUP, ISP,
TOS]
troll ----------------- Either the act of posting a message with the purpose
of attracting flames, or the person doing so. [see
also: flames, the Nose, meow]
UBE ------------------- "unsolicited bulk/broadcast e-mail" Also known as
junk e-mail and (incorrectly) as spam. [see also:
UCE]
UCE ------------------- "unsolicited commercial e-mail" Also known as junk
e-mail and (incorrectly) as spam. [see also: UBE]
UDP ------------------- "usenet death penalty" This can be either passive
or active. A passive UDP refers to the dropping of
all postings by a particular domain so as to inhibit
propagation. An active UDP refers to third-party
cancellation of all postings by the UDPed domain.
A partial UDP is one which applies only to certain
newsgroups or hierarchies in Usenet. [see also:
IDP, rogue]
whack-a-mole ---------- The act of repeatedly causing spammers' throwaway
accounts and drop boxes to be terminated. Named
for the carnival game which involves quickly and
repeatedly hitting the heads of mechanical moles
with a hammer as they pop up from their holes.
[see also: drop box, mallet, throwaway account]
white hat ------------- An award given metaphorically to those systems or
people who act in a responsible, ethical way,
usually in relation to the termination of a spammer's
account. It can also refer to the person or system
him/her/itself. [see also: LART, spam, TOS]
win nuke -------------- The deliberate creation of an out-of-band error in
a system running Microsoft Windows, causing the system
to crash. [see also: DOS attack]
YM -------------------- "you mean"
YMMV ------------------ "your mileage may vary"
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