April 18, 2006 4:00 AM PDT
On sentry duty in your in-box
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In March last year, 19 percent of the e-mails coming into Hotmail contained a valid SPF record. At the end of March this year, 31 percent of messages could be authenticated, Spiezle said. The number of Fortune 500 companies that sent Sender ID-compliant mail has increased from 7 percent in July last year to 20 percent at the end of March, he said.
While the number of Internet domains that publish an SPF record is increasing, the pace of growth is down, Wong said.
"Over the last year or so, things have slowed down a little bit. After the first wave, Microsoft is now trying to get the message out to the rest of the industry," he said.
However, the industry has done "a pitiful job" of attacking the e-mail problem, by submitting competing specifications and not reaching consensus, Forrester Research analyst Jonathan Penn said.
"Will they ever get their act together? If the past is any indication, it's doubtful. No wonder such ridiculous concepts such as everyone paying for e-mail delivery is getting any attention at all," he said, referring to AOL's proposal to use GoodMail's CertifiedEmail, software that requires marketers to pay to make sure their messages get past spam filters.
Before any real success can be reported, authentication needs to be adopted more broadly by e-mail senders and receivers, eBay's Durzy said. As more e-mail providers adopt these services and start authenticating with them, that will make it harder for phishers, he said.
The popularity of authentication is advancing at a reasonable pace, said Michael Osterman, head of Osterman Research, which focuses on Internet messaging. However, mass adoption is a ways out. "If I had to guess, I would say that we're three to four years away from very high penetration rates," he said.
Microsoft expects a jump in adoption in the months after Wednesday's Authentication Summit. About 500 people have registered to attend, including representatives from Allstate Insurance, Accenture, the American Association of Retired Persons, General Mills, Williams Sonoma and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Spiezle said.
Major marketing trade groups are also getting behind e-mail authentication. The Direct Marketing Association, for example, requires its members to adopt the technology.
The time is right to adopt e-mail authentication, industry experts agreed.
"We have had the standards hammered down," said Teney Takahashi, a market analyst with The Radicati Group. "This is the point that we really need to see broader adoption."
See more CNET content tagged:
e-mail authentication, Sender ID, e-mail security, authentication, sender
18 comments
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Another MS joke at attempting to benefit from a problem that will always exist.
Another MS joke at attempting to benefit from a problem that will always exist.
All these systems can do is "verify" supposedly good messages. We already block 99% of all spam with a combination of Spamassassin and the Spamhaus.org blacklist (with no false positives).
I seriously doubt SenderID or the others could improve on that.
All these systems can do is "verify" supposedly good messages. We already block 99% of all spam with a combination of Spamassassin and the Spamhaus.org blacklist (with no false positives).
I seriously doubt SenderID or the others could improve on that.
Microsoft should know by now that having people register to prove who they are doesn't work. 'No one' registerd drivers, 'no one' registers activex components, and if anyone did, would it help? Nope.
Why does Microsoft keep having us beta test their ideas and software, and try to charge us for it?
You people are pathetic. I'm glad folks like you will have no meaningful impact on the world I'll be living in for the next decades. You post here over and over for no other reason than our amusement. However, you still don't have the style of ol' "Cut 'n Paste" Mettler!
Microsoft should know by now that having people register to prove who they are doesn't work. 'No one' registerd drivers, 'no one' registers activex components, and if anyone did, would it help? Nope.
Why does Microsoft keep having us beta test their ideas and software, and try to charge us for it?
You people are pathetic. I'm glad folks like you will have no meaningful impact on the world I'll be living in for the next decades. You post here over and over for no other reason than our amusement. However, you still don't have the style of ol' "Cut 'n Paste" Mettler!
All other MS products that have anything to do with Internet technologies, without fail open up users of said technology to an untold number security and privacy concerns. No other product in any category is perfect, but the issues concerning MS products outnumber all other products combined across the board in terms of numbers, impact and severity.
Last but certainly not least, since when does Microsoft care about you and me? I'm not a Microsoft hater, only looking at the facts and track record. Microsoft only does what is good for Microsoft, to obtain and/or maintain a monopoly at the expense of users/consumers. This issue is no exception.
All other MS products that have anything to do with Internet technologies, without fail open up users of said technology to an untold number security and privacy concerns. No other product in any category is perfect, but the issues concerning MS products outnumber all other products combined across the board in terms of numbers, impact and severity.
Last but certainly not least, since when does Microsoft care about you and me? I'm not a Microsoft hater, only looking at the facts and track record. Microsoft only does what is good for Microsoft, to obtain and/or maintain a monopoly at the expense of users/consumers. This issue is no exception.
Every single IP address in the world is managed by members if ICANN.
ISP's in all the countries get their IP address blocks from ICANN authorised sources.
Thus - you cannot have a "Spam Source" that works outside the known chain of responsibility from ICANN to the local ISP.
The responsibility for controlling SPAM has to be that of ISP's. They are the ones who hand out the IP addresses that are used to send SPAM.
This is not a problem that can be solved by any company, even the mighty Microsoft. In fact, many suspect that Hotmail is the biggest harvester of email addresses that are used for spamming.
SPAM as another poster pointed out, accounts for a humongous waste of bandwidth. It can be controlled only through the concerted efforts of countries (who own the blocks of IP addresses) and ISP's who are allotted IP Address blocks within countries.
sughyosha
Every single IP address in the world is managed by members if ICANN.
ISP's in all the countries get their IP address blocks from ICANN authorised sources.
Thus - you cannot have a "Spam Source" that works outside the known chain of responsibility from ICANN to the local ISP.
The responsibility for controlling SPAM has to be that of ISP's. They are the ones who hand out the IP addresses that are used to send SPAM.
This is not a problem that can be solved by any company, even the mighty Microsoft. In fact, many suspect that Hotmail is the biggest harvester of email addresses that are used for spamming.
SPAM as another poster pointed out, accounts for a humongous waste of bandwidth. It can be controlled only through the concerted efforts of countries (who own the blocks of IP addresses) and ISP's who are allotted IP Address blocks within countries.
sughyosha