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On the other hand, anti-spam measures are constantly implemented, and filters consistently improving. However, the ongoing spam problem has been gaining a lot of ground lately as spammers keep changing tactics frequently enough to make even the best, most adaptive filtering systems unable to cope. The spam-increasing situation has been heavily tackled with for several years now, and strong voices emerged, stating that the best anti-spam approach might not be filtering at all, but a Challenge / Response (C/R) system.

Getting acquainted to C/R anti-spam filtering

For whoever is not very familiar with the term, this approach is based on the simple truth that spam comes from spammers (including mailing robots, spam bots or any automatic mass mailing tool), whereas good mail comes from senders you know (friends, family, business partners, co-workers, the publisher of an email newsletter you have subscribed to). Therefore, it is safe to assume that all “unknown mail” is spam. This is the main idea behind Challenge / Response spam filtering.

Instead of trying to filter out the spam, C/R filters look for mail from trusted senders (those on your so-called “White List”) and let it through. Everything else is thought to be spam and “quarantined”. This makes for a fantastic spam detection rate. Moreover, a Challenge / Response system automatically sends a reply with a challenge to the (alleged) sender of every “quarantined” email. In this reply, the sender is asked to perform some action to assure delivery of the original message, which would otherwise not be delivered.

This happens without any effort from the mailbox owner’s part, and, once the address in question is verified, the message is delivered appropriately, as are all subsequent messages from that sender.

Challenge / Response spam filters: what’s out there?

As software developers have been knocking themselves out trying to come up with the killer app that will stop spam forever, and the battle against spam was still spiraling out of control, there were those who realized that the Challenge / Response process is simple, but incredibly efficient, and could represent the simplest solution to the vast majority of spam. So they came up with stand-alone tools, doing expressly, and only, that: Challenge / Response spam filtering, to buy separately and use in addition to an email provider of choice.

We find several such email verification services on the market, some working better than others, but basically doing the same thing, and the similarity is striking. In fact, I came across a single case in which the Challenge / Response anti-spam method is available differently, and in this case it comes as an add-on to a specific messaging solution, and is still regarded as a separately-paid-for option.

It was about time that someone came up with a different approach, one that stands out: an integrated Challenge / Response-based anti-spam system, secure by design, requiring no set up and no effort to use.

Challenge / Response technology. But slightly different.

Axigen Identity Confirmation© is an implementation of a Challenge / Response-based anti-spam method, already embedded in the messaging solution. Starting with version 7.3.0, Axigen Mail Server contains this feature incorporated alongside an existing well-above-average arsenal of anti-spam tools, meeting in full the requirements of the most demanding security-focused professionals, although they’re not the only ones who can easily appreciate this kind of integration at just value.

This approach brings Challenge / Response anti-spam filtering at the user’s disposal at only one ”enable”-away. Providing the user with his/her own integrated C/R filter certainly seems to set the bar a little bit higher for all mail server software out there that do not offer this kind of upper-level anti-spam protection. Until now, anyone who wanted to benefit from a C/R-based anti-spam filter had to look for a different provider and buy the service separately.

What really makes the difference

There are some elements that distinguish the Axigen Identity Confirmation © from other implementations of Challenge / Response processes, such as:

The “Unconfirmed Messages” folder – where all the received, yet unconfirmed, messages are permanently stored. The unconfirmed emails are available for inspection at anytime, with easy access, without them crowding the Inbox. The “Collected Addresses” contact folder (part of the Address Book) – where all the confirmed senders are automatically added. Configurable validation code – at the user’s disposal to change whenever they want to. The number of days to be skipped when sending the confirmation request to a sender – easy configuration according to the user’s preference.

Moreover, as a Challenge / Response spam-blocking system embodied by a messaging solution, Axigen Identity Confirmation © brings other major upsides to the table:

It implies Address Book correlation, which means no effort put into importing or exporting contacts, and also that any change or update performed Safe Senders list-wise automatically synchronizes with the C/R filter in place. Being conceived as complementary to other anti-spam technology brings the efficiency of a perfectly coherent extra-layer of security, to result in one of the most extensive security mixes on the market.

So, what really makes Identity Confirmation different in comparison to all other Challenge / Response systems available is the fact that it is already embedded within the messaging solution, with all of the advantages that this incorporation brings, making up a coherent, hassle-free and comprehensive security package.

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According to the résumés that are distributed to large
corporations and small businesses, only good guys look for jobs.
This seems to be especially true in the Information Technology
field. You will never see a résumé that shows that a project was
cancelled, or that the programmer was removed from a project due
to his inability to meet the needs of the company or a client.
Instead, the résumé’s all show that only the best of the best
are looking for work.

If they are the best of the best – then why are they seeking
work? Why have they had so many different jobs? Why aren’t these
companies treating these IT professionals better? Well, the fact
is that the majority of résumés submitted are full of lies and
half truths. Unfortunately, when a company checks a potential
employee or contractors work history, they are very limited in
the questions that they are allowed to ask – and past employers
are often reluctant to give information, sticking with
employment dates and starting and ending salary information.

Work history and performance aren’t the only lies and half
truths that you will find on a résumés. People also tend to lie
about their education and accomplishments. They know that even
though their education can easily be checked, most employers
won’t take the time or use the resources to do this. They also
know that accomplishments are rarely checked – so they can
easily get away with stretching the truth, or telling a straight
out lie.

Personal references are also useless when it comes to finding
out about someone. Do you really think that they would list
someone that would say negative things about them? Of course
they won’t. They are only going to give you the names,
addresses, and telephone numbers of people who will make them
look good – and then they are going to coach those people about
what to say and what not to say before you call.

With all of these résumé lies and half truths, it is almost
impossible to find IT professionals that can handle the job that
you are trying to fill. Many employers have even started
contacting IT schools to hire students and recent graduates -
who are vastly inexperienced – just to avoid the possibility of
hiring someone who has lied on their résumé. When they do hire
someone who has lied, they often find out – too late – that the
person did not have the necessary skills to handle their IT
project. This costs the employers hundreds and even thousands of
dollars in lost time, lost clients, and salaries that are paid
out to these unskilled people.

This problem exists for corporate employers who are trying to
fill permanent or long term IT positions, as well as for small
business owners who need to hire IT professionals on a
project-by-project basis. Until a few years ago, these employers
had to take their chances and hope for the best. Today, however,
there is a better way.

Back in January of 2001, a gentleman named Ian Ippolito had an
idea. Ippolito is a programmer with a bachelor’s degree in
Computer Science from the University of Central Florida. His
idea came about when he was getting more requests for
programming work than he could possibly handle. By the middle of
2001, Ippolito had a way to meet the needs of clients that he
was being forced to turn away due to time constraints. ‘Rent a
Coder’ was born, and by the following year, over 1400 software
projects were being completed every month. Today, close to 9000
projects are completed monthly, and that number continues to
rise.

Rent a Coder is described as an international
marketplace, where people and companies that need custom
software developed can find programmers – or coders – without
worrying about losing their money. The coders are equally
protected as well, meaning that they don’t have to worry about
completing jobs and not getting paid for them. People from all
over the world are able to do business together in a safe, web
based environment. Good coders don’t lack for work, and good
buyers don’t lack for coders who are willing and able to do the
work.

While Rent a Coder was originally intended for software buyers
and programmers, today many different types of projects go
through the site, such as content writing, linking projects, and
other short term virtual assistant projects. There are currently
over 42,000 buyers registered with Rent a Coder, and over
110,000 coders are available.

Rent a Coder has an excellent system that works well for both
coders and buyers. First, when a buyer has a software need, or
other need that can be filled by a freelancer, they can sign up
for a free account at Rent a Coder. Buyers are never charged a
fee for using the site’s services, and they are not charged a
fee on projects either. The only way buyers are charged fees is
when a project is cancelled after a bidder has been chosen- and
even then, the cancellation fee may be the responsibility of the
coder, or split between the coder and the buyer, depending on
the circumstances.

It literally takes less than ten minutes to set up a buyers
account on Rent a Coder. To protect the coders, the buyer must
go through a short verification process. This is done by
telephone and it is automated. The buyer can choose to pay for
projects through paypal ( http://www.paypal.com ) or with his or
her credit card. This information is entered in when setting up
the buyers account, and is part of the verification process.
This phase of the verification process can take up to
twenty-four hours, because it is handled by humans. No charges
are made to the buyer’s credit card or paypal account until he
sets up a bid request and chooses a winning bidder.

When setting up a bid request, the buyer has many options. He
can set the maximum amount that he is willing to pay for
completion of the project, describe the project and requirements
that must be met, set a deadline for bidding, and a deadline for
project completion, and choose certain skills that bidders
should have, such as web design, c++ programming, or writing
skills. Setting up a bid request often takes less than ten
minutes, and the Rent a Coder staff approves bid requests for
publication to the site within hours, and sometimes even within
minutes.

Then, the bidding starts. No matter how big or how small your
project is, there will be plenty of bidders to choose from. As
bids come in, the buyer can look at the bidder’s profiles. Here,
they will find information that they would never find on a
résumé. They can see where the coder is located, how they are
rated, how long they have been a member of Rent a Coder, the
last date and time that they were logged into the site, how many
jobs they have completed through the site, and how many jobs
that they have in progress.

Then, they can see even more interesting information, such as
how many arbitrations a buyer has had. Arbitrations occur when
there is a conflict between a buyer and a coder. The results of
arbitrations are listed near the bottom of the page with the
coder’s reviews. Many buyers require coders to submit status
reports every Friday. This is common for long term projects and
required for projects over a certain amount of money. On the
coder’s profile, the buyer can see how many status reports the
coder missed, if any.

Education, which is commonly lied about on résumés, doesn’t
matter quite as much on Rent a Coder. The coder can submit their
résumé, which becomes part of their profile, and they usually
list any education they have had, but Rent a coder has a better
plan. Rent a Coder is partnered with ‘Expert Rating’ at
http://www.expertrating.com . Coders who are serious about their
work and their reputations can take certification tests through
Expert Rating, and their certifications appear on their Rent a
Coder profiles. This takes away the need to check a coder’s
education to determine whether or not they have the skills that
your project requires. Coder’s are not required to take the
certification tests however – but the one’s that are serious
about their work often do get certified.

After the Expert Rating certifications listing on the profile,
the buyer can view the résumé that the coder has posted. Most
buyer’s only give this a cursory glance, because they are much
more interested in what is below that résumé. The Rent a Coder
All Coder Competition Scores comes after the résumé and this
tells a buyer how a coder ranks overall on the Rent a Coder
site. This score is calculated using a formula consisting of the
number of jobs a coder has completed, the amount of money they
were paid, their ratings for each job, and whether status report
deadlines and project deadlines were met.

Coders take this rating and competition quite seriously. It
often means the difference between winning and losing bids. I
have completed over 500 jobs through RentACoder successfully.
When someone wants to hire me, they simply look at my profile,
where they can see how past buyers have rated me, and read the
reviews of my work I have been rated by hundreds buyers that I
have performed services for, and I have an average rating of
9.92. I am certified professional, I have missed no status
reports, and I have never lost an arbitration. I have a Top
Coder rating, and is quickly on my way to becoming one of the
Top 10 Coders at Rent a Coder. When a potential buyer considers
hiring me, they are usually quite impressed with the reviews
that past buyers left behind on my profile.

The rating system is one of the better features of the Rent a
Coder site. When a coder completes a job, the buyer can rate
them, on a scale of 1 to 10, and they can write a review on the
work that was done. These reviews and ratings are better than
any polished résumé that you could receive. There are no lies
here – the information left behind by past buyers who have
worked with the coders is absolutely honest – and the coder
can’t do anything to hide that information from you – other than
to close that coder account and open a new one, which is seldom
done. New coders find that it is difficult to get their foot in
the door – with no jobs completed and no ratings or reviews.
Furthermore, if a coder gets caught doing this, they get banned
from the site permanently.

Of course, all of this works well in reverse too. The coders
also get to rate the buyers. After a job is completed, they
coder rates the buyer on a scale of 1 to 10, and can write a
review on their experience with the buyer. This alerts other
coders to buyers who are difficult to work with, or who are slow
to respond, or slow to release escrowed funds after work is
completed. Before bidding on jobs, coders usually take a look at
the buyer’s profile, which is set up almost just like the coders
profile, with only a few differences.

When a buyer accepts a bid, the money for the bid amount is
moved into an escrow account by Rent a Coder, where it remains
until the coder reports the work as complete, and the buyer
accepts the work as 100% complete. When the buyer accepts the
work, the funds are released to the coder’s account, and coder’s
are paid through paypal, western union, or check either once or
twice a month, depending on the options that the coder chooses.

This process of escrowing funds protects both the coder and the
buyer. The coder knows that they will get paid, and the buyer
knows that is the coder does not complete the work as agreed,
they can put the project into arbitration, and a Rent a Coder
arbitrator will listen to both sides and make a determination
about releasing the funds. The arbitrator facilitators are
completely neutral, and award the funds based on the facts that
they have. That is why both the coder and buyer are encouraged
to keep all communications going through the Rent a Coder
website, so that there is proof as to what was asked, what was
said, and what was done.

With sites like Rent a Coder, the days of lying on résumés are
quickly coming to an end. By hiring coders through Rent a Coder,
buyers save money because the competition between the coders
keeps prices down. The buyer doesn’t have to worry about losing
their money, or paying large salaries or benefits for a full
time or temporary employee, and they can avoid hiring IT
professionals who turn out to be anything but professional!

Copyright 2005 – Sergey I.Grachyov

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