The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has approved DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), whose domain-identification technology prevents fraudulent junk emails from reaching users' inboxes.
In a combined effort to help combat email forgery, phishing and other forms of online fraud, Yahoo, Cisco Systems, Sendmail and PGP Corporation were all behind the push for this technology’s approval as an industry standard.
DKIM is an email authentication framework that uses cryptographic signature technology to verify the sender’s domain. The technology authenticates, verifies and traces emails to help determine whether a message is legitimate, according to the IETF.
Leading industry researchers praised the adoption this week.
"We view protecting email users from scams as a top priority," said Mark Delany, lead architect, Yahoo Mail. "We currently see about a billion DomainKeys-signed emails flow through Yahoo Mail each day, and we look forward to continued momentum as more senders adopt the new email authentication standard."
Jim Fenton, engineer at Cisco’s Technology Center, said: "DKIM can improve users’ trust in email and in doing so make the internet a safer and more useful tool. Developing reputation-based and accreditation systems that incorporate this technology will create a safer online environment for users at work, home and on the go."
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