IETF Approves DomainKeys Identified Mail as Proposed Internet Standard; Authenticating Technology Addresses Fraudulent E-mail and Phishing Scams
Yahoo!, Cisco, Sendmail, and PGP Corporation among Industry Leaders Developing DKIM to Give Online Users More Protection Against E-mail Forgery
Sunnyvale, CA (rushprnews) June 1 , 2007 – In a combined effort to help combat e-mail forgery, phishing and other types of online fraud, technology industry leaders Yahoo!, Cisco, Sendmail and PGP Corporation announced on May 22 that the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the group responsible for technical standards on the Internet, has approved DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) as a proposed standard, RFC 4871. DKIM is an e-mail authentication framework that uses cryptographic signature technology to verify the domain of the sender.
According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, close to 24,000 phishing scams were reported in the U.S. in February 2007 alone, with more than 100 top brands being forged. DKIM provides businesses with heightened brand protection by providing message authentication, verification and traceability to help determine whether a message is legitimate. It also provides additional information to ISPs and consumers to help determine whether a message’s point of origin is legitimate. DKIM is the result of collaboration among numerous organizations. Now that DKIM has been approved as a proposed Internet standard, these companies will work closely with leading ISPs, enterprises, e-commerce organizations, financial institutions and the open source community to facilitate rapid adoption of the specification and its incorporation into future products and offerings.
Authoring Partners Comments:
“As the largest Web mail provider in the world*, we view protecting e-mail users from scams as a top priority. We are gratified that the core DomainKeys technology, which Yahoo! first introduced in 2003, has evolved to reach this milestone through the IETF process, and that DomainKeys Identified Mail is positioned to become the pre-eminent standard for e-mail authentication,” said Mark Delany, lead architect for Yahoo! Mail and author of DomainKeys. “We currently see about a billion DomainKeys signed e-mails flow through Yahoo! Mail each day, and we look forward to continued momentum as more senders adopt the new e-mail authentication standard.”
“Over the past three years, we have all worked closely to bring DKIM to the next level with the goal of creating an industry-wide, standards-based solution for e-mail fraud that will benefit businesses as well as the rest of the Internet,” said Eric Allman, chief science officer and co-founder of Sendmail, Inc. “Sendmail has been and will continue to be dedicated to protecting the trust of Internet communications through development and promotion of interoperable technologies, in collaboration with other like-minded partners. DKIM is an example of major players coming together to do the right thing, sacrificing short term competitive edge to ensure safety, security and trust on the Internet.”
“DKIM can improve users’ trust in e-mail and, in doing so, make the Internet a safer and more useful tool,” said Jim Fenton, a distinguished engineer in Cisco’s Technology Center and one of the authors of DKIM. “Cisco is proud of its role in helping lead the industry collaboration around this standard. Developing reputation-based and accreditation systems that incorporate this technology will create a safer online environment for users at work, at home and on the go.”
“We are pleased to work with the industry to create the DKIM standard,” said Jon Callas, CTO, CSO, and co-founder of PGP Corporation. “The DKIM partnership has created an important innovation — authentication that can travel with an email message as it moves throughout the Internet. Committed to industry standards and interoperability, PGP Corporation has used strong cryptography to improve security for millions of global users, so we applaud this effort.”
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo!’s mission is to connect people to their passions, their communities and world’s knowledge. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
About Sendmail
Sendmail is the leading global provider of trusted messaging. With 25 years of leadership delivering innovative messaging technology, Sendmail ensures the protection and trust of employee and customer communications. Sendmail technology, driven by the industry’s most powerful and flexible policy engine, provides protection where 80% of security and compliance violations occur – within inbound and outbound messaging. Large enterprises in 33 countries, and the majority of the Fortune 1000 trust Sendmail to shield users from unwanted messages, defend the messaging infrastructure, stop data and privacy leaks and effectively manage messaging to maintain brand and shareholder value and support regulatory compliance. Sendmail is headquartered in Emeryville, CA with offices and distributors in Europe, Asia and North America.
About Cisco
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.
About PGP Corporation
PGP Corporation is a global leader in email and data encryption software for enterprise data protection. Based on a unified key management and policy infrastructure, the PGP® Encryption Platform offers the broadest set of integrated applications for enterprise data security. PGP® platform-enabled applications allow organizations to meet current needs and expand as security requirements evolve for email, laptops, desktops, instant messaging, PDAs, network storage, FTP and bulk data transfers, and backups. PGP® solutions are used by more than 80,000 enterprises, businesses, and governments worldwide, including 95 percent of the Fortune® 100, 75 percent of the Fortune® Global 100, 87 percent of the German DAX Index, and 51 percent of the U.K. FTSE 100 Index. As a result, PGP Corporation has earned a global reputation for innovative, standards-based, and trusted solutions. PGP solutions help protect confidential information, secure customer data, achieve regulatory and audit compliance, and safeguard companies’ brands and reputations. Contact PGP Corporation at www.pgp.com or +1 650 319 9000.
*According to comScore Media Metrix, April 2007
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Anne Howard www.annehowardpublicist.com writer and publicist
