Spamhaus

In the world of email marketing, Spamhaus — also called The Spamhaus Project — is an international organization that actively tracks email spammers and spam-related activities. This organization works off of the standard definition of spam, being “widely distributed unsolicited emails.” Founded in 1998 by Steven Linford, this organization provides anti-spam protection to networks. The organization works to protect over 1.7 billion email users, and estimates that it blocks 80 billion spam messages per day over the Internet. This organization also works with law enforcement to identify and pursue spammers on an international level.

To provide this level of protection to networks, Spamhaus maintains several highly-regarded anti-spam DNS blocklists. Many ISPs use these blocklists to reduce the spam that is allowed over the network. This lists include: the Spamhaus Block List which notes verified spammers; Exploits Block List which notes third party exploits; Policy Block List; Domain Block List which notes spam sources. Spamhaus also maintains whitelists to benefit email newsletter marketers. These include the Spamhaus White List and the Domain White List, both of which name members who are verified legitimate senders with clean reputations and who maintain strict Spamhaus-mandated standards.

Because of the organization’s nature, the term “spamhaus” has also been coined to describe an ISP which spams or one that willingly serves spammers.