AOL/Yahoo/Microsoft antispam techniques
InternetRetailer.com – Daily News for Monday, April 28, 2003
Hamlin says the Microsoft/AOL/Yahoo effort will concentrate on two basic goals: reducing the ability of spammers to spoof e-mail recipients with misleading “from” and “subject” headings, and establishing a set of anti-spam policies implemented throughout the e-mail world by both senders and recipients. A central part of this effort will be to leverage existing directories of Internet Protocol addresses, such as the Domain Name System, to verify the actual IP addresses of outbound e-mail. “You can`t spoof an IP address,” he says.
He adds that Microsoft and other participants will publish guidelines on how to configure inbound e-mail systems to work more closely with IP address registries. “It `s a minor effort for individual companies,” he says. “A single IT-person shop can do it.”
Among the other techniques the three companies will work on:
- Inhibit the delivery of e-mail from network systems determined to be operating with open routers or other technology that leaves a system open to use by unauthorized senders of e-mail;
- Eliminate the ability to create fraudulent e-mail accounts in bulk;
- Define a mechanism that would allow consumers to communicate with e-mail service providers regarding spam complaints;
- Develop better mechanisms for preserving electronic evidence of spamming activity to support enforcement actions;
- Help coordinate industry-wide use of best practices in blocking spam.
