SORBS closing has been announced
I’ve heard rumors for a few days that Proofpoint was closing the SORBS (Spam and Open Relay Blocking System) DNSBL. Still, I had not seen any real confirmation until last night, when the list maintainer sent an email to the Mailop mailing list. So, I now feel comfortable posting that SORBS is closing over the next few weeks.
No Transition Details Available Yet
Details about how the shutdown will happen are sparse. The SORBS website does not yet indicate that any changes are coming, other than the now years-long promise of “new manager tools” to help “registered users… manage their IP netblocks.” Hopefully, that will change in the next few days, providing more clarity on the process and timeline.
What Was SORBS?
SORBS has a long and somewhat checkered history. It was created in the early 2000s, with a DNSBL (Domain Name System-based Blackhole List) version coming online in January 2002. It was sold to GFI in 2009.
During my early days at ExactTarget (now Salesforce Marketing Cloud), starting in July 2010, many of our IPs were listed on SORBS with an explicit notation that the listings would not be removed due to the list maintainer’s personal issues with another employee. The intervention of another ET employee eventually broke that impasse, and the listings were removed several weeks later. I never considered that a sign of a fair or well-run list (and have remained pretty biased against its use since then). Steve Atkins at Word to the Wise published a blog series on SORBS in December 2010, highlighting various issues with the service. Steve Atkins, GFI/SORBS Considered Harmful, Word to the Wise (2010), https://wordtothewise.com/2010/12/gfi-sorbs-considered-harmful/ (last visited Jun 4, 2024).
GFI sold the list to Proofpoint in July 2011. Since then, SORBS has remained at Proofpoint, continuing to operate as one of the many public DNSBL services that SMB and hobbyist email administrators sometimes use to block potential spam sources. Issues have mainly died off over the last few years.
Impact on the Email Industry
The closure of SORBS does not mark any real turning point in the email security landscape. While it was one of the oldest DNSBL services, SORBS helped mainly hobbyist email administrators filter spam and other malicious email traffic. However, its controversial history and management issues have made it a source of frustration for many in the industry and depressed its overall use. SORBS listings have not been considered impactful in the email marketing space for many years. A recent consulting client saw fewer than 200 messages blocked over a volume of less than a million.
What’s Next?
With SORBS shutting down, email administrators will rely on other DNSBL services—and there are many to choose from, ranging from better to more poorly maintained.
For those relying heavily on SORBS, it’s crucial to stay informed about the transition and look for updates from Proofpoint. But since the list is closing, SORBS usage should be immediately discontinued.
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