The Playground

Finally, some good news on the email scene. PC World announced today that specifications for a new email authentication tool to help fight against phishing and spam were published yesterday by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), opening the way for software vendors and email service providers to find better ways to protect email recipients.

The specifications were announced for DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), a new technology that combines several existing antiphishing and antispam methods to create an improved way to sort and identify legitimate e-mail.

Instead of using a traditional IP address to identify the sender of each message, DKIM adds a digital signature associated with the organization's domain name. That signature is then validated invisibly at the recipient's end. "White lists" and "black lists" are then used by the e-mail infrastructure software to validate the reputation of the sender.

This is great news for all email users. Once some well-known Web sites such as Google, Yahoo, Paypal and others begin using DKIM, a flood of adoption will occur, allowing some peace of mind.

"Industry support for sender authentication technologies will mean that [consumers] can start trusting email again, and it can resume its role as one of the most powerful communication tools of our times," said Yahoo officials.

In other related news, anti-spam campaign Project Honey Pot has filed a law suit seeking more than $US1 billion in statutory damages from spammers.

Project Honey Pot's members have installed software on their web servers that identifies the IP addresses used to harvest email addresses, and the strategy is to use the legal process to force the harvesters to reveal the identities of spammers who purchased address lists from them.

The case has been brought against "John Does Injuring [Project Honey Pot] and its Members By Harvesting Email Addresses, Transmitting Spam, And Posting Comment Spam" on behalf of tens of thousands of project members in more than 100 countries.

I've signed up to place a honey pot on my website and help track down the spammers stealing email addresses from all our websites. If you know a friend or colleague who might be interested in a Project Honey Pot account? Don't hesitate to refer them.