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Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Sender Accreditation Program Announced ...

... By Insitute For SPAM And Internet Public Policy.

New database helps ISPs, Spam Filters Make Email Acceptance Decisions

SAN FRANCISCO March 15, 2004 The Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy (ISIPP) announced today the release and availability of the ISIPP Accreditation Database (IADB).

Using the same technology as do its controversial blocklist cousins, such as the MAPS RBL and SPEWS, which are used to reject spam, the IADB is designed to help email receiving organizations such as ISPs and spam filtering companies in making email acceptance, handling, and delivery decisions, and to help legitimate senders of bulk and commercial email to ensure that their email gets delivered, and not erroneously blocked as “spam”.

The IADB accomplishes this dual purpose by listing email senders in the database, and providing factual information about the senders to the ISPs and spam filters, including whether the sender has passed a background and reference check by ISIPP, whether they are personally known to ISIPP to be good Internet emailing citizens, and whether they publish Internet domain authentication records such as for Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or Microsoft’s “Caller I.D. for Email”, or participate in sender authentication programs such as Habeas or Ironport’s Bonded Sender.

“What is unique about IADB, among other things, is that it is the first DNS-queryable database which provides the kind of fact-based data that it does,” said Anne P. Mitchell, Esq., President and CEO of the Institute. “We don’t tell ISPs ‘you should accept email from this sender because we say so’. We tell ISPs “this organization has good mailing practices, they are known to us, they publish SPF records, participate in Bonded Sender, or whatever the case may be, and the ISPs and other receivers make their email acceptance or rejection decisions based on that data.”

The IADB provides listee data in ways which are useful to both ISPs and spam filters. ISPs often prefer to make an email processing decision based on a cumulative score, accepting email from any IADB listee which has a score above a certain number, indicating that they adhere to many best practice standards. Spam filters often prefer to have each piece of information available to them separately, as individual data points. IADB accommodates both.

“Outblaze supports ISIPP's IADB database because it gives us factual and reliable information about senders,” said Suresh Ramasubramanian, Security and Antispam Operations Manager for ISP Outblaze Limited. “Information such as whether a sending site publishes SPF records and whether it is personally known to ISIPP as a responsible sender that maintains and furthers best current practices.” Added Ramasubramanian, “the IADB is a convenient tool that helps us make decisions about accepting and processing email from senders who are vouched for as responsible mailing list operators.”

"We're pleased to see resources like IADB emerging, and SpamAssassin is looking at incorporating an IADB lookup into our next release," said Craig Hughes, one of the chief architects of the open source SpamAssassin project. "ISIPP has been very flexible and accommodating in working with us to establish a standard interface mechanism between accreditation databases like IADB and filters like SpamAssassin."

“IADB is also unique in that it is the first such database to incorporate a sending site’s SPF or Microsoft “Caller I.D. for Email” data, and if other sender domain authentication schemes come online we are prepared to incorporate them as well,” added Mitchell. “This not only provides an added data point for the ISPs and spam filters, but it also means that those sites which publish authentication records can have their domains listed in IADB, along with their IP addresses.”

Sender authentication records are important because they keep spammers from successfully forging a domain name in the “From” portion of the email they send.

"Having the IADB provide information about whether a sender publishes SPF records is an important new direction for DNS-based email delivery information databases, and we're very pleased that ISIPP has chosen to do this, and happy to work with them in providing unique IADB accreditation codes for SPF publishers”, said Meng Weng Wong, founder of POBox.com and a chief proponent of SPF. “It is exactly this sort of cross-industry pollination which is going to help make sure that legitimate email gets delivered and that fraudulent email does not."

In addition to the support of ISPs and spam filtering companies, the IADB is being embraced by email software and technology developers such as Advenix, developer of the EmailTeaser enhanced graphical subject line technology. “On its own, the EmailTeaser allows an email marketer to complement the subject line of their email with a small graphical icon next to the subject line, which, when voluntarily moused-over by the recipient, displays a teaser graphic of the sender’s choosing without the need to open the email,” explained Justin Khoo, chief developer of the EmailTeaser. “We’ve incorporated IADB data, and provide email marketers who are listed in IADB with a customized EmailTeaser icon which tells the recipient “this email is ok, it’s from someone listed in the IADB”.

Email senders who are interested in being listed in IADB should see http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
Receiving sites can get information about querying the IADB at http://www.isipp.com/iadbquery.php

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About the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy

The Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy (ISIPP) is a privately held corporation headquartered in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. ISIPP's advisors provide expert analysis and consulting services to legislators, governmental and regulatory agencies, industry leaders, educational institutions, and the press. Founded in 2003 and privately funded, ISIPP provides services such as the Spam Law Enforcement Database, and sponsors organizations and events like the Email Processing Industry Alliance, and the 2004 “Spam and the Law” conference, and the upcoming “International Spam Law & Policies” conference.

For information about any of ISIPP’s programs contact info at isipp.com.

Information about SPF can be found here: http://spf.pobox.com
Information about Microsoft “Caller I.D. for Email” can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/twc/privacy/spam_callerID.mspx
Information about Advenix Email Teaser can be found here: http://www.advenix.com

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks or copyrights of their respective owners.

This info was introduced to me by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq.

Mike

- posted by Mike Merz @ 3/17/2004 06:40:00 AM

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