Is Sender ID an effective email authentication tool?

To continue reading for free, register below or login

Requires Membership to View

To gain access to this and all member only content, please provide the following information (all fields required):

First Name:
Last Name:
Country: Select... Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia, The Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, North Korea, South Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Man, Isle of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Email Address:

I would like to receive a FREE subscription to Information Security magazine online.
YesNo

Do you manage, evaluate, recommend, implement, support or purchase security products, software or services?
YesNo

Please estimate the yearly security budget for your entire organization including all security products and services.
Please select... Over $10 Million $5 Million-$10 Million $1 Million-$4.9 Million $500,000-$999,999 $100,000-$499,999 $50,000-$99,999 $25,000-$49,999 $10,000-$24,999 Less than $10,000 None

What is your role in purchasing IT related products and services? (Check all that apply)
Technical decision maker
Financial decision maker
Recommend/Specify
Evaluate products
Implement Products/Services
Determine Needs
Create Security Strategy
None

By joining SearchSecurity.com you agree to receive email updates from the TechTarget network of sites, including updates on new content, magazine or event notifications, new site launches and market research surveys. Please verify all information and selections above. You may unsubscribe at any time from one or more of the services you have selected by editing your profile or unsubscribing via email.

TechTarget cares about your privacy. Read our Privacy Policy

BROWSE BY TAG Application Security,   Application and Platform Security,   Email Protection,   Email Security Guidelines, Encryption and Appliances,   Email and Messaging Threats (spam, phishing, instant messaging),   VIEW ALL TAGS

Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT Application Security Are Web application penetration tests still important? What does 'invoked by uid 78' mean? How secure are iPhone App Store mobile applications? What security software should be installed on Internet café computers? Are message stubs a secure part of email retention policies? How does a Web server model differ from an application server model? Can Google Earth and other mash-up applications threaten enterprise security? Do European laws prevent a U.S. company from blocking spam? Can one antivirus program be used to get rid of spyware? How to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) session hijacking Email Security Guidelines, Encryption and Appliances What does 'invoked by uid 78' mean? How to configure firewall ports for webmail system implementation Fierce competition prompted new Cisco email security options Cisco brings email security appliances closer to SaaS Cisco offers more email security choices, but lacks vision Information security book excerpts and reviews Are message stubs a secure part of email retention policies? Strategies for email archiving and meeting compliance regulations Product Review: Astaro Mail Gateway 4000 What are the security risks of opening port 110 and port 25? Email and Messaging Threats (spam, phishing, instant messaging) Unified communications: Securing a converged infrastructure Chained Exploits: How to prevent phishing attacks from corporate spies 3FN.net ISP shutdown interrupts spam campaigns Swine flu outbreak results in spam pandemic What does 'invoked by uid 78' mean? Economy fuels malware, spam Internet Explorer 8 includes a bevy of security features Adobe JBIG2 exploits being spammed, IBM warns Fierce competition prompted new Cisco email security options Cisco brings email security appliances closer to SaaS Email and Messaging Threats (spam, phishing, instant messaging) Research

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary asymmetric cryptography  (SearchSecurity.com) challenge-response system  (SearchSecurity.com) cryptographic checksum  (SearchSecurity.com) data encryption/decryption IC  (SearchSecurity.com) elliptical curve cryptography  (SearchSecurity.com) Escrowed Encryption Standard  (SearchSecurity.com) MPPE  (SearchSecurity.com) Quiz: Cryptography  (SearchSecurity.com) session key  (SearchSecurity.com) Twofish  (SearchSecurity.com)

RELATED RESOURCES 2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary

Championed by Microsoft, the Sender ID Framework is an email authentication technology that has been around for a couple of years. It aims to verify a sender's identity, checking that each email message originates from the Internet domain it claims to have been sent from. This tactic addresses spammers and phishers who forge or spoof the sender's address on email messages. Sender ID lets the receiving mail servers determine whether a sending mail host is authorized to send email for a particular domain. Sender ID matches the address of the sender server with the SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record, published in the sender domain's DNS records. An Internet service provider (ISP) automatically performs this verification before an email is actually delivered to a user.

Sender ID is a combination of Microsoft's Caller ID for Email and Sender Policy Framework. Sender ID and SPF differ in what problems they address. They validate separate header fields and work at different layers of the email system. Sender ID requires SPF in order to work, which makes the framework a higher level protocol.

As with most Microsoft-led initiatives, there has been some controversy. Depending on how Sender ID is implemented, the framework can be incompatible with existing specifications. Microsoft also holds patents on key parts of Sender ID, despite having just placed them under the Open Specification Promise, which can make the patents compatible with free and open source licenses. This should encourage the release of more products and services that use Sender ID technology. According to Microsoft, 5 million domains use Sender ID, meaning that around 36% of all legitimately sent email has been authenticated by the technology. Microsoft obviously uses it to check incoming mail to its own servers, as well as those of MSN and Hotmail. To implement Sender ID on Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 running Service Pack 2, configure the properties of the Message Delivery object under Global Settings.

There are other antispam technologies in development, including signing solutions. DomainKeys, created by Yahoo, uses public key cryptography as part of its authentication process. This technology will certainly prevent some types of attack, but deployment is not going to be as easy. Also, unlike Sender ID, DomainKeys cannot reject a message until the whole body has been received.

So how well does Sender ID stop spam? Well, it's easy to implement and is certainly a significant step toward countering spam and phishing attacks. Sender ID, however, does require everyone to create SPF records for their domains so that senders can be verified, and this process is one that cannot happen overnight, if at all. I don't believe there is a single solution to stopping all spam. Sender ID can certainly be used as a component of a multi-layered approach. Messages that fail checking, for example, can be rejected or subjected to a higher level of scrutiny than those that pass. Mail servers certainly still need to consider past behavior, traffic patterns, and sender reputation, as well as apply conventional content filters when determining whether to deliver mail to the recipient.

More information: