Question

A SaaS-based email service provider often receives reports from legitimate customers that their IP netblocks are on blacklists and they cannot send email. The SaaS has confirmed that affected customers typically have IP addresses within broader network ranges and some abusive customers within the same IP ranges may have performed spam campaigns.

Which of the following actions should the SaaS provider perform to minimize legitimate customer impact?

A. Inform the customer that the service provider does not have any control over third-party blacklist entries. The customer should reach out to the blacklist operator directly
B. Perform a takedown of any customer accounts that have entries on email blacklists because this is a strong indicator of hostile behavior
C. Work with the legal department and threaten legal action against the blacklist operator if the netblocks are not removed because this is affecting legitimate traffic
D. Establish relationship with a blacklist operators so broad entries can be replaced with more granular entries and incorrect entries can be quickly pruned

Answer 1

The SaaS-based email service provider should work on establishing relationships with blacklist operators to negotiate more granular blacklist entries and quick pruning of incorrect entries, which would minimize the impact on legitimate customers.

Step-by-step explanation:

To minimize the impact on legitimate customers whose IP netblocks are on blacklists, a SaaS-based email service provider should establish relationships with blacklist operators. This connection enables the service provider to negotiate for more granular entries on the blacklists, ensuring that only the specific IPs involved in abusive behaviors are blocked, rather than entire netblocks, which might contain legitimate users.

Additionally, this relationship could facilitate the quick pruning of incorrect blacklist entries, which would otherwise harm legitimate email traffic. While informing customers about their lack of control over third-party blacklists is factual, and taking down customer accounts on blacklists is a preventive measure, these actions do not resolve the issue completely and can be disruptive. Legal threats are generally not productive and could lead to negative ramifications.