DS Technology Benefits Spam Control

Maintaining e-mail authentication and granting right permissions is the fundamental basis of solving spam menace. Using 'digital signatures' correctly can give legitimacy to e-mail and thus control spam effectively.

In developed countries, e-mail is a source of communication for huge mass of people and it is now growing rapidly in developing countries as well. Its personal, powerful, convincing and widespread nature makes it a delivery vehicle for marketing and operational communication for businesses.

Mike Wright, CEO of 'international electronic messaging specialist', Striata, says that it became necessary to dig ways to establish high levels of trust in this technology and restore it as an impressive tool. He added that they had to campaign the use of digital signature technology for companies that fundamentally rely on customers and concentrate on use of e-mail for all electronic transactions, such as e-billing and other services.

Digital signature uses cryptography for its creation and verification that transforms messages into unintelligible code and back. The signatures use an algorithm of two different mathematically related "keys", one for constructing a digital signature and the other for verifying it.

With the help of digital signatures, genuine enterprises can send e-mails to customers and partners who can easily authenticate them. Users who could be susceptible to spam mails can protect themselves by using this technology. End users can acquire complete control over spam by a digital signature obtained from 'key cryptography'. The critical part is in adapting these cryptography tools for verifying authenticity of e-mail as also making the process less complicated for e-mail writers.

However, the technology has some inherent challenges. When recipients' anti-virus programs run on e-mail, it marks a notice confirming that it has been checked but in the process, it may alter the e-mail content and 'break' the digital signature.

Therefore, implementing the digital signature solution requires two parts - one, anti-virus software must be so adjusted that it leaves e-mail contents unchanged and also does not break the digital signature; and second, the organization must alert its 'e-mail recipient base' about the digital signature so they are able to discern the use of the technology.

Related article: Dixie College Suffers Data Hack

» SPAMfighter News - 10/10/2006