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Spam
breakthrough splits industry

How will email marketers benefit from the new technology?

Microsoft, AOL
and Yahoo! have all introduced separate sender authentication solutions to
reduce spam emails, despite signing an agreement last year to work together on
the problem.

Authenticating
the identity of email senders is the sharpest, shiniest new weapon in the fight
against unsolicited messaging. Microsoft's proposal, Caller ID, works by recipient
email servers checking the IP address or domain of an email against a list of
addresses published by the sender. If it isn't on the list, the email will be
identified as spam.

AOL is
trialling Sender Policy Framework, which works in a similar way, while Yahoo!
has developed DomainKeys, which matches 'signatures' on a message heading to
signatures on the purported sender's server.

They prevent
domain spoofing, a practice that avoids spam filters by assuming someone else's
sender address. Fraudsters use it to go 'phishing', extracting money from
credit cards, say, by sending emails they pretend are from the card owners'
bank.

Publishing IP
address information could affect some businesses, such as email forwarding
companies. Ken Schneider, the CTO of Brightmail, the leading email security
software developer which is working with Microsoft on Caller ID, explains:
“Email authentication may require certain changes in email behaviour
– especially those cases where email is being sent from an IP address not
associated with the sending domain.”

While the
Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo! technology is being trailed, the security company
MailKey already has a solution in the market: SenderID, a protocol that runs
tests on incoming emails. Although MailKey will sell SenderID with its Message
Manager package, it hopes other software companies will use the protocol for
their own applications. If all servers can use SenderID, or similar technology
of their own, “it will kill identity theft and spoofing,” according
to the chief operating officer David Dobson.

Direct
Mail at Risk

This should interest businesses that use email marketing, because spoofers can
use their addresses to deliver spam. As Dobson at MailKey puts it, “The
danger is that people will not respond to any communication, no matter how
legitimate it looks, for fear of infecting their computer, losing money or
being prone to some other kind of abuse.”

Spoofing aside,
businesses that follow the recent legislation on privacy and electronic
communications should be able to reach their customers without any problems.

But some
industry figures argue that the sheer volume of spam has made customers less
trustful and interested in legitimate mail. Robert Dirskovski, head of
interactive media at the Direct Marketing Association, believes email marketers
have already lost the battle – that their messages are considered
together with unsolicited messages as junk mail. He argues that instead of
trying to differentiate opt-in practices from intrusive mail and malware, the
industry should focus on reducing the volume of spam. And that's where the
technology comes in.

Positive
Reaction

The reaction to sender authentication technology has been positive. Legitimate
marketers believe it will hold their illegitimate peers to account. Industry
bodies welcome the emphasis on technology, rather than legislation, which is
harder to implement across borders. And ISPs look forward to any reduction in
spam, which takes up much of their time and resources.

But is the
proliferation of sender authentication software the best way forward? Neil
Morris, deputy managing director of the Institute of Direct Marketing, says,
“There are already too many alternate offerings in the online chain that
make it very difficult for businesses, as senders, particularly SMEs, and
customers, as recipients, to understand what's going on.”

Gartner
research director Arabella Hellawell agrees. She has criticised so many
technologies being developed, saying, “These multiple specifications will
impede adoption, as will the need to introduce new inter-enterprise practices
and technology upgrades.”

It makes sense
for US companies to develop the technology: most spam comes from the US. But
many people would rather see an industry-wide collaboration, and are unnerved
that Microsoft is already offering a patent licence for Caller ID. What happens
over the next few months is critical. If the new proposals prove compatible, or
can be whittled down through testing, they should become worthy weapons against
spam. Better still, they could help protect the medium of email marketing,
which small businesses have come to depend on as a cheap, targeted and
measurable way to reach their customers.

HOT
TOPIC: Where do you stand on spam and sender authentication?

“Authentication
is critical because it forces senders to be accountable. This protects the good
senders and puts the spammers in jeopardy, exactly where they should be.”

Joshua Baer

Member of the Email Service Provider
Coalition’s steering committee

“My
concerns are that the very providers of email marketing and ancillary
technology are not necessarily the best people to try and put an end to spam. I
don’t doubt their motives, but it’s an invidious position they find
themselves in. It's a bit like Ferrari trying to introduce speed cameras and
sleeping policemen.”

Nik Margolis

Client services director of email
marketing firm Inbox

“[Authentication]
sounds great, but in reality it is very difficult to put into practice. While
reputable companies would be happy to be authenticated and for all mail servers
that receive mail to be updated to perform the checks, there will be companies
that do not co-operate and this jeopardises the whole system.”

Steve Kennedy

Head of product futures at
communication provider THUS

“Email
recipients are already capable of distinguishing between spam and
permission-based emails... it doesn't take long to spot all the variants of
‘Viagra’ in a subject line.”

Dave Chaffey

Email marketing trainer for the
Chartered Institute of Marketing

“If we
eventually realise a solution where ISPs could simply refuse to carry mail from
non-authenticated senders, this would have a significant impact on the levels
of email traffic that ISPs would need to handle.”

Karl Robinson

Managing director of business ISP
Mistral

“Anything
that the major ISPs can do to help legitimate, opt-in and permission-based
marketers get in the inbox is obviously welcomed. Over 50 per cent of UK
consumers use Hotmail, AOL and Yahoo! – as one of those consumers I'm fed
up with finding junk mail in my inbox and email that I signed up for in my junk
folder.”

Mike Parry

Sales director of marketing firm
Interactive Prospect Targeting

This
article first appeared in Internet Works Issue 84 - June 2004