Spam

Microsoft Anti Spam

The roadmap of Microsoft in its microsoft anti spam program includes a Coordinated Spam Reduction Initiative (CSRI), as well as a technical proposal for e-mail that would work like telephone caller ID system. Spam is the major source of irritant while receiving e-mail.

It is clear that a concerted effort by all the concerned parties would be required to make progress in combating spam e-mails. A multi-pronged, holistic view is required to counter spam problems.

Technological innovation, educating consumers, proper legislation, active industry participation and strict enforcement are needed in fighting spam e-mails. In its microsoft anti spam program, the company has already made available its SmartScreen spam filter. The company is also working on CSRI, seeking cooperation from the entire industry.

The company had proposed the use of a 'caller ID' type of approach to weed out e-mail spoofing from false 'From' addresses in its microsoft anti spam program. This is done in two steps. At present, the e-mail senders publish their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of their outgoing e-mail servers in Domain Name System (DNS).

At the receiving end, the e-mail software queries DNS for the e-mail policy document to determine the 'responsible domain' of the e-mail message. Then the software compares the information contained in the DNS to make sure that the information on the originating e-mail is properly matched. Strict checking procedures should identify legitimate senders and solve the spam problem.

For the microsoft anti spam program to work, the infrastructure for caller ID recognition has to be executed at the service provider level. Both outbound and inbound IP address processing have to be published to achieve this. However, this microsoft anti spam plan could only serve as a deterrent at best. It cannot solve the spam problem totally.

Still, as a first step, this would assist legitimate e-mail senders to brand their Domain Name. This could prevent spammers from trying to spoof domains. Further measures would also be required to completely eradicate the spam problem.

The CSRI program of microsoft anti spam program first expects to establish a verifiable identity in e-mail. More efforts have to be put in for compliance by high volume e-mail senders with sensible e-mail policies. Even for low volume e-mail senders, practicable identification alternatives have to be put in place.

Article Published: Tuesday 27th February 2007