Sudoku can become a new means for solving the spam problem, which spam filters are not effective enough at doing. This was suggested by Paul Gardner-Stephen from Flinders University in Adelaide. The concept is to add an automatic system that makes mail servers solve a sudoku puzzle in order for the message to reach the recipient.
It all works like this: first the spam filters check the message to determine the likeliness that it is spam, there would be classification levels for this, some would be flagged as almost certainly spam, others as likely spam and so on. According to this level, the sending mail servers would have to solve easier or more difficult puzzles before they reach the recipient. Those that are clearly spam would take hours to solve, thus highly lessening the number of messages actually reaching the recipient.
"If someone's trying to send spam, they end up with a lot of puzzles to solve, so they can only send relatively few messages a day," Gardner-Stephen says.
Technically speaking, solving the puzzle proves the importance of the message and therefore it goes through.
Sudoku was chosen for this puzzle because it is easy to verify, yet not nearly as easy to solve.
So far this method is only theoretical, but will be tried on one mail-server over the next year. If it works out, it will take five to 10 years for a system like this to be installed across the many thousands of mail servers found on the internet.
It all works like this: first the spam filters check the message to determine the likeliness that it is spam, there would be classification levels for this, some would be flagged as almost certainly spam, others as likely spam and so on. According to this level, the sending mail servers would have to solve easier or more difficult puzzles before they reach the recipient. Those that are clearly spam would take hours to solve, thus highly lessening the number of messages actually reaching the recipient.
"If someone's trying to send spam, they end up with a lot of puzzles to solve, so they can only send relatively few messages a day," Gardner-Stephen says.
Technically speaking, solving the puzzle proves the importance of the message and therefore it goes through.
Sudoku was chosen for this puzzle because it is easy to verify, yet not nearly as easy to solve.
So far this method is only theoretical, but will be tried on one mail-server over the next year. If it works out, it will take five to 10 years for a system like this to be installed across the many thousands of mail servers found on the internet.
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