Industry Collaboration in Email Authentication
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| Industry Collaboration in Email Authentication Verifying Identity is Critical to Spam Fighting Efforts Tremendous progress has been made in the fight against spam. Advances in e-mail filtering technologies and continued anti-spam enforcement efforts have made spamming more difficult and, thus, a less-rewarding and profitable business. Still, spammers, and a growing breed of cyber-scammers known as phishers, have become more creative and malicious in their attempts to rob users of their security, privacy and financial assets. These scammers are notorious for exploiting the lack of verifiable identity in e-mail to trick filters and e-mail recipients into thinking a message is coming from a legitimate and trusted source. To address this problem, the technology industry is pursuing new ways to verify that a sender of e-mail is indeed who it claims to be. These verification approaches are commonly known as “e-mail authentication technologies.” By providing a mechanism by which a sender’s identity can be confirmed, these technologies will enable both spam filters and enforcement efforts to be more effective. Filters can also use authentication in concert with accreditation- and sender reputation-based solutions to make better, more-informed decisions about incoming e-mail. Successful deployment of e-mail authentication will be achieved in phases, incorporating multiple approaches and technologies. Today there are two primary methodologies: IP-based solutions such as Sender ID Framework and signature-based approaches such as Yahoo!’s DomainKeys and Cisco’s Identified Internet Mail. Both have a place in deploying authentication for e-mail. TRUSTe is committed to convening technology providers to collborate on solutions which provide greater transparency, accountability and enforcement to email. Authentication alone will not stop spam or phishing. It does provide a critical technological underpinning for reputation and accreditation services. Additional information on leading e-mail authentication technologies gaining momentum in the industry today can be found below.
For more information on TRUSTe's efforts to bring standards of conduct and accreditation to email, please read our submission to the FTC Workshop on authentication or read more about our email services to identify legitimate senders of email. | |
Read the the industry letter to the FTC calling for rapid adoption of Sender ID signed by 35 organizations.
Click to read the .pdf version of the letter to the FTC. |
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