IronPort provides anti-spam services for Microsoft

Microsoft has contacted IronPort Systems to provide anti-spam solutions for Microsoft's MSN and Hotmail e-mail services. Ironport is going to provide a "bonded sender" e-mail program, which aims to create a list of certified senders of bulk e-mail. Microsoft and IronPort have been testing this system for more than five months.

To qualify for the so-called "white list," senders of bulk e-mail pay a financial bond, agree to a set of best practices for sending commercial e-mail and are monitored by TRUSTe, a nonprofit organization that monitors complaints against bulk e-mailers, IronPort said.

Should senders violate any of these best practices, debts are taken against the bonds, which are calculated based on the monthly volume of mail sent, the company said.

Since February, Microsoft has been spearheading its Coordinated Spam Reduction Initiative (CSRI), an antispam movement that seeks to thwart spam on a number of fronts, including the authentication of e-mail senders. As part of that effort, Microsoft also published its Caller ID for E-mail specification, aimed at stopping the spoofing of e-mail addresses.

Caller ID specification works by having companies register the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses of their outgoing e-mail servers in a DNS (Domain Name System) record for their domain. IronPort's bonded system also works in a similar fashion.

Also provided by IronPort is a blacklist (Spamcop).

Source: InfoWorld