Industry supports email authentication now more than ever.

After a great deal of vocal support in 2005, it may seem like its all quiet on the email authentication front in 2006. The fact is, however, that support for email authentication within the industry has never been stronger. Adoption and implementation is at an all time high and continuing to rise.

Consumers don't place demands on their ISPs specifically for authentication because, the fact is, public education about authentication is somewhat lacking. This is something we are trying to remedy with industry events such as the Email Authentication Summit. What they do demand is a stop to spam, and the industry has embraced authentication as one of the major weapons against spam. So the push for authentication is coming from within the email industry, on behalf of its customers.

As for the technology itself, email authentication has moved beyond the initial concept and development stages of nascent technology to being implemented by more companies and organizations everyday. Something spurring this along is the meshing of several standards into two comprehensive authentication solutions that are offered by many ISPs, ESPs and MTAs. SIDF is an IP-based solution that was developed from the merger of the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Microsoft Sender ID for Email. DKIM is a cryptographic solution that is the merger of Yahoo DomainKeys and Cisco's Identified Internet Mail (IIM) specifications. Both have advantages and can be used in combination.

Some technology milestones that have helped drive the authentication movement include:

• Microsoft has integrated SIDF checks into Hotmail, and MSN Yahoo has integrated DKIM checks into Yahoo Mail.
• America Online is using SIDF to manage their Dynamic Senders List Google's Gmail performs authentication checks behind the scenes Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 delivers a layered anti-spam solution, including SIDF.
• IronPort's C300D supports SIDF and DKIM.
• Port25's PowerMTA supports SIDF and DKIM.
• StrongMail supports SIDF and DKIM.
• Sendmail SwitchMTA supports SIDF and DKIM.

Organizations like the ESPC and the DMA are requiring their members to implement some form of authentication standards. In a recent survey of its members, the ESPC found that 97 percent were authenticating outbound client email; 73 percent were authenticating both client and corporate email. These are major industry players driving the trend, and those numbers just keep going up.

As the authentication movement gains more and more steam, soon it will be imperative that ALL email be authenticated. It's an unstoppable force now, and senders who don't get with the program are going to pay the price with severely lowered deliverability rates and bad email reputations. As email marketers, we are aware of the endless possibilities of email in marketing, business and global communications, and authentication is going to be a vital part of maintaining the viability of "the killer app."

Bottom line: implementing authentication is just a smart business decision with obvious gains and little to no cost/risk.

Joshua Baer is CEO of  SKYLIST and chair on the ESPC Technology Committee. He's also an analyst with Ferris Research.

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