SAN FRANCISCO, April 2 /PRNewswire/ --

Setting the stage for a better understanding of sender authentication as a technology to combat junk email, the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) has released a new white paper describing the practice as a foundation for protecting legitimate Internet mail. "Trust in Email Begins with Authentication" provides an overview of the technology by focusing on the standardized mechanisms in general use today, Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Sender IDentification Framework (SenderID), and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM).

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"Authentication mechanisms can help distinguish legitimate email from spam. When used as part of a multi-faceted anti-abuse program, it is an important tool to help protect business brands from forgery and phishing attacks," said Dave Crocker, the MAAWG senior advisor who edited the paper and principal at Brandenburg InternetWorking.

Email authentication mechanisms are used to validate the identity of an email's sender, stifling would-be spammers who often forge the "From" field in an email message to avoid detection. The executive summary of the MAAWG paper provides an overview of how authentication can be used to protect email and is intended for general business managers. The main body provides more detail on SPF, SenderID, and DKIM mechanisms and is intended for technical readers familiar with basic Internet mail service.

"Trust in Email Begins with Authentication" is available at no cost at the MAAWG Web site, http://www.MAAWG.org.

About the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG)

The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) is where the messaging industry comes together to work against spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. MAAWG (www.MAAWG.org) represents almost one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It is the only organization addressing messaging abuse holistically by systematically engaging all aspects of the problem, including technology, industry collaboration and public policy. MAAWG leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., MAAWG is an open forum driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers.

Media Contact: Linda Marcus, APR, +1-714-974-6356, lmarcus@astra.cc, Astra Communications

MAAWG Board of Directors: AOL; AT&T (NYSE: T); Bell Canada; Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR); Cloudmark; Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA); Cox Communications; EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK); France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); Goodmail Systems; Google Inc.; Openwave Systems (Nasdaq: OPWV); Return Path, Inc. (Full-Member representative to the Board); Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

MAAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; AG Interactive; Bizanga LTD; Eloqua Corporation; Internet Initiative Japan, (IIJ Nasdaq: IIJI); IronPort Systems; McAfee Inc.; MX Logic; Outblaze LTD; Return Path, Inc.; Sprint; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Symantec; and Telefonica SA.

A complete member list is available at http://www.maawg.org/about/roster.

Web site: http://www.maawg.org

Linda Marcus, APR, of Astra Communications for Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, +1-714-974-6356, lmarcus@astra.cc; Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070124/CLW180LOGO, AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org, PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com