DomainKeys reach out to more users

DomainKeys reach out to more users

SPAM has been one of the major turn offs for most web users. Checking emails have become a hassle when you cannot be sure the mail you received is from the actual sender! Email ID spoofing (phishing as it is generally called) has become a potent tool in the hand of spammers to lure innocent victims into releasing private information that can have dangerous consequences.

Many companies have been developing technologies to prevent this. And Yahoo’s DomainKeys is one of the first ones to be publicly deployed. Google already has implemented it in its hugely popular GMail service, which happens to be still in beta. And an Indian IT Company Sify became the first ISP to deploy it on their network.

Now, the technology gets a headstart with Yahoo! itself (one of the biggest webmail services online) began testing it. Apart from that, EarthLink Inc. is also joining the pool. DomainKeys works by embedding outgoing messages with an encrypted digital signature matched to a signature on the server computer that sends the message. This can later be checked by ISPs who can block the mails, which does not match the signature on the incoming messages.

With Microsoft in the process of rolling out their own technology in SenderID, there is hope for a better spam-controlling system in the near future.