|
|
Emerging Email Initiatives
There has been a lot of discussion recently on changing the way
email works in order to address the problems of spam. Early adopters
are concerned about which initiatives will ultimately be widely
adopted and whether the adoption process will cause significant
disruption to person-to-person email delivery.
These initiatives can be broadly categorized as:
Sender Authentication
Email Accreditation and Reputation Systems
Sender Authentication
A large percentage of spam employs tactics such as spoofing or "phishing" - making the email look as if it is coming from a reputable sender. Sender authentication initiatives are designed to enable receiving email systems to determine if the sender of an email is using a forged email address.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
http://www.openspf.org/
SPF involves adding an entry in the internet Domain Name Server
(DNS) registry specifying which mail servers are allowed to send emails
for a specific domain. Recipient email servers will query these
name registries to ensure that the sending server is indeed authorized
to send email for the specific domain. SPF is currently the most
widely adopted sender authentication protocol and SPF specifications
have been published as an Internet Draft at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Sender ID
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/technologies/senderid/default.mspx
The Sender ID framework is a sender authentication scheme that combines certain features of an earlier Microsoft initiative called Caller ID with SPF.
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys
DomainKeys is similar to SPF and Sender ID in that they leverage the DNS to perform sender authentication. But unlike the other technologies, DomainKeys uses digital signatures to add an extra layer of verification. DomainKeys offers a more granular and secure approach to sender authentication, such as on a per-user level, but with a higher cost in terms of technical complexity.
Email Accreditation and Reputation Systems
Authentication of emails alone is not enough to determine if a sender is legitimate or not.
Recipients have to be able to identify the track record of a sender in order to
determine whether to trust messages originating from the sender.
This need is fueling a budding industry to accreditate and
track the reputation of emailers.
Goodmail Systems CertifiedEmail
http://www.goodmailsystems.com
Goodmail Systems aims to create a class of email that consumers
can identify as safe and trustworthy by displaying a CertifiedEmail identifier next to the
email. Volume senders pay a fee per-email for the privilege and in return
participating ISPs exempt the emails from the junk mail filter.
Currently CertifiedEmail has been adopted by AOL and Yahoo!
ISIPP SuretyMail
http://www.isipp.com/suretymail.php
The SuretyMail program is an email accreditaion service.
SuretyMail provides ISPs and spam filters with a set of metrics on emailers
and allow the receivers to determine whether to block or accept email from a
sender. ISIPP works with a variety of ISPs and has an arrangement with AOL to accreditate
email from non-profit senders.
Sender Score Certified
http://www.senderscorecertified.com
Sender Score Certified is an email certification service provided by Return Path in conjunction with TRUSTe. Previously known as Bonded Sender, the service has removed its bond requirement and currently operate as a whitelist based service. Sender Score Certified counts MSN Hotmail as one of many
domains and ISPs that uses its whitelist to determine privileges given to incoming email.
Habeas
http://www.habeas.com
Habeas is an email deliverability company and offers a set of solutions
to mailers looking to improve their deliverability rates into customers' inboxes.
Habeas operates its own whitelisting service which is being used by MSN Hotmail.
Vanquish Email Bond
http://www.vanquish.com/
Vanquish requires senders of unsolicited email to post a cash bond
in order to get the attention of the recipient. If a recipient judges
the mail to be illegitimate, the recipient clicks on a "penalty
button" and the sender loses the bond. The cash gets divided between
the ISP, recipient, and Vanquish. The Vanquish model forces senders
to evaluate the value and relevance of the offers that they are
sending to the recipient.
* Officially referred
to as Domain Name Server
All trademarks are property of their respective owners. VisualSubject
is a trademark of Advenix.
|
|
