Sender ID - Not an Anti-Spam Solution

Microsoft recently announced it will more heavily utilize its Sender ID technology when filtering email sent to its Hotmail service. Anti-spam expert and http://www.spambutcher.com founder, Rich Olson is skeptical how much this will do to aid in filtering email.

"The biggest misunderstanding about Sender ID is that it's a general anti-spam solution. It's not, and Microsoft doesn't claim that it is. Its main purpose is to certify that an email message came from a server or network that the sender's domain has approved sending email from."

"For example, a bank may publish a Sender ID record listing a handful of email servers that can legitimately send mail on its behalf. Email messages originating from other servers are likely to be from fraudulent senders engaged in 'phishing' attempts."

"This is useful for an organization with a high risk of fraud and a tightly controlled IT infrastructure. For many companies, limiting outgoing email to a few servers or networks isn't practical. Employees who work at home, or are 'road warriors' commonly have to send email through alternate servers."

"Sender ID allows for this. A domain can effectively publish a record that says any IP address can send email on its behalf. Unfortunately, in this scenario Sender ID's usefulness is greatly diminished."

"I did an informal survey of domains that had implemented Sender ID. About half of their records didn't have any restrictions on what networks or servers were valid to send email from. While these domains have technically implemented Sender ID, it's not providing substantial value."

Anti-Spam for the End User

"Users looking for an anti-spam solution are still best served by a client-side spam filter software application like SpamButcher. By using client-side filtering, users can easily adjust preferences, and review any filtered messages."

"While competing products use a subscription model, the SpamButcher spam blocker application is a one-time purchase. For just $29.95 users can solve their spam problem indefinitely."

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