UPDATE – Informational Listings in the Spamhaus Blocklist

1. Initial early warning signals

These will no longer be placed in the SBL. Instead, this intelligence from the Spamhaus Project will be placed in the Spamhaus Intelligence API. This will be accessible from the Reputation Portal for the IP addresses that are associated with your ASN(s), making the data easier to consume, or via check.spamhaus.org.

As always, ignore this reputation signal at your peril. Where IP addresses continue to be associated with the same poor sending behavior, an informational listing will be made in the SBL.

2. Informational Listings in the SBL

These will exist, but at a much-reduced volume (unless everyone ignores the intelligence shared via the API). Once you receive one of these, you will know that things are getting increasingly serious, as there is a persistent pattern of bad sending practices. But, at this stage, the IP address in question will not be placed in the zone to be used to filter.

3. SBL Listing

Yes, it’s time to worry. If our researchers see that you have ignored the initial signals and the informational listing(s), the sending IP will be listed and placed in the zone that is used to filter.

When are these changes happening?

In the near future. The exact dates are to be confirmed, but please rest assured that communications will be made via Twitter and LinkedIn. In the meantime, for those of you who want to keep the listings in place, the team at the Spamhaus Project won’t be removing them. Please get in touch with the Spamhaus Project via the usual channels for those who would like them removed.

In the meantime,  the  Spamhaus Project researchers are revising their processes to reduce the deluge of informational listings until this signal is available via the API.