Microsoft Pushes Spam-Filtering Technology

**Dave Zan** · 06-23-2005, 08:35 AM

This isn't good, to say the least...

http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5758365.html

Quote:

Microsoft pushes spam-filtering technology
Published: June 22, 2005, 6:25 PM PDT
By Joris Evers
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

If your e-mail does not have a Sender ID, Microsoft wants to junk your message.

Sometime around November, Hotmail and MSN will flag as potential spam those messages that do not have the tag to verify the sender, Craig Spiezle, a director in the technology care and safety group at the software maker said Wednesday. The move is meant to spur adoption of Sender ID, he said.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/industry-news/101174-microsoft-pushes-spam-filtering-technology.html

Sender ID is a specification for verifying the authenticity of e-mail by ensuring the validity of the server from which the e-mail came. While the purpose of curbing junk mail may be laudable, the debate on how to stop the tide of junk mail is still ongoing. According to Microsoft, up to 90 percent of e-mail is spam.

Critics say Sender ID, which includes technology developed by Microsoft, is not an accepted standard and has many shortcomings. Also, there are technologies that compete with Sender ID, such as Yahoo's DomainKeys.

"We think Microsoft is trying to strong-arm the industry into the adoption of an incomplete and not accepted standard," said Dave Rand, chief technologist for Internet content security at security software company Trend Micro.

Microsoft's move increases pressure on e-mail senders to adopt Sender ID. The technology requires Internet service providers, companies and other Internet domain holders to publish so-called SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records to identify their mail servers.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=101174

About 1 million domains currently publish SPF records, Microsoft said. That's far from the 71.4 million registered domains worldwide at the end of last year. Still, because some large e-mail senders such as AOL support Sender ID, about 30 percent of e-mail today carries Sender ID information, according to e-mail filtering company MessageLabs.

Criticism for the technology
Sender ID has not been a success because it is not very highly regarded, said Ray Everett-Church, co-founder of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail and co-author of the book "Fighting Spam for Dummies."

"Microsoft has been trying to shove Sender ID down the throats of the Internet community for several years now, to little effect," he said.

Microsoft's unilateral move may hurt Internet users, he said. "Sender ID isn't widely deployed, meaning that average users are now at risk for having their legitimate e-mail tagged as spam when they send messages to Hotmail users."

Experts say one of the problems with Sender ID is that it doesn't work with e-mail forwarding services. The basic premise of Sender ID is to check if an e-mail that claims to be coming from a certain Internet domain is really being sent from the e-mail servers associated with that domain.

"If you receive mail forwarded through, for example, a university alumni account, the Sender ID check fails," said Matt Sergeant, a senior antispam technologist at MessageLabs.

The Internet Engineering Task Force, a standard-setting body, dissolved a working group on Sender ID in September. Still, Microsoft is plowing ahead with Sender ID, perhaps in a last-ditch effort to make good on a promise by Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates to can spam by 2006.

"All domain holders and e-mail senders should be publishing SPF records and planning to do that now if they want to improve the legitimacy of their mail, plus protect their domain and consumers. It is the responsible thing to do," Microsoft's Spiezle said.

Turning on the filters at Hotmail and MSN will give e-mail senders a reason to adopt Sender ID, Spiezle said. Without an incentive, many have said that they won't publish SPF records, he said. "We're in a catch-22," he said. "What we're trying to do is to do the right thing by giving everyone advance notice."

However, this Microsoft effort to push adoption of Sender ID is likely to fail, certainly with such a short deadline, said Jonathan Penn, an analyst at Forrester Research. "Hotmail is in no position to dictate that organizations adopt Sender ID," he said.

Adopting Sender ID or any other technology requires time and money, Penn said. "Company budgets are on a yearly cycle, and most of them have no money for such a project this year," he said.

Microsoft argues that publishing SPF records is simple. It usually does not require new hardware or software and the most arduous part is doing an inventory of mail servers and the subsequent maintenance of the record, Spiezle said.

LeeRyder · 06-23-2005, 11:03 AM

well I don't care if anything from yahoo gets blocked.. everything Ive ever gotten from a yahoo (real or fake) addy has been spam, 100%.

as they say.. 90% is spam, that just means more money that we individuals have to pay over the long haul.. so I applaud Microsoft for taking the reigns of this run away stagecoach and making a stand.

dax · 06-23-2005, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Sender ID is a specification for verifying the authenticity of e-mail by ensuring the validity of the server from which the e-mail came.

Finally some moves to reduce spam. However, this still will not stop "zombies" from sending spam...

LeeRyder · 06-23-2005, 01:14 PM

no, wont stop them from sending, but it will stop them from being received...

this is aimed strategically at those zombie machines if you examine it in depth

zombies can't verify this as microsoft has it set up.. it will all just mostly bounce into oblivion

Element · 06-27-2005, 04:11 AM

Hopefully this can reduce the spam people get in emails. Im tired of getting spam from people I dont even know.

06-27-2005, 04:11 AM	#5 (permalink)
Element NamePros Regular Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: United States Posts: 646	Hopefully this can reduce the spam people get in emails. Im tired of getting spam from people I dont even know. __________________ PolarisWorld \| Formula 1 Valencia \| Villas La Manga \| Real Estate Valencia Extra Virgin Olive Oil \| Security in Spain \| SEO Directory \| Real Estate Spain

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Microsoft Plans Service to Sell ...	Mark	Industry News	4	03-18-2005 01:27 PM
Does Microsoft Want To Be Google?....	THESTOKIE	Industry News	14	07-04-2004 03:11 AM
Israel stops buying Microsoft software	slipondajimmy	The Break Room	2	01-04-2004 03:23 AM
U.S. passes anti-Internet spam bill	RJ	Industry News	4	11-22-2003 02:33 PM
Spam lol	bobbi	The Break Room	5	07-14-2003 10:56 AM

06-23-2005, 11:03 AM	#2 (permalink)
LeeRyder Account Suspended Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Left Coast Posts: 3,503	well I don't care if anything from yahoo gets blocked.. everything Ive ever gotten from a yahoo (real or fake) addy has been spam, 100%. as they say.. 90% is spam, that just means more money that we individuals have to pay over the long haul.. so I applaud Microsoft for taking the reigns of this run away stagecoach and making a stand.

06-23-2005, 01:14 PM	#4 (permalink)
LeeRyder Account Suspended Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Left Coast Posts: 3,503	no, wont stop them from sending, but it will stop them from being received... this is aimed strategically at those zombie machines if you examine it in depth zombies can't verify this as microsoft has it set up.. it will all just mostly bounce into oblivion

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)