Internet portal Yahoo on Tuesday released an e-mail standard that prevents spam marketers from hiding unwanted messages behind legitimate e-mail addresses.
The technique, if widely adopted, could help Internet providers more easily block the unwanted bulk messages that currently account for up to two-thirds of all e-mail traffic.
Yahoo's proposed standard, known as DomainKeys, would embed outgoing messages with an encrypted digital signature matched to a signature on the server computer that sends the message. Internet providers could check the signatures on incoming messages and block those that do not match up.
The procedure would be invisible to regular e-mail users, because it would be implemented by e-mail providers, Yahoo said on a Web page describing the standard.
Internet providers deploy a barrage of filters to weed out spam, and large providers like Time Warner's America Online block up to 2.5 billion junk e-mails each day.
The technique could also block fraudulent "phishing" attacks, in which scam artists attempt to collect credit card numbers and other sensitive information by posing as companies like Citigroup and eBay, Yahoo said.
DomainKeys, first announced last December, is one of several attempts to help legitimate messages stand out from the flood of spam.
Microsoft's Hotmail and MSN services recently adopted a "white list" program by IronPort Systems that would allow legitimate marketers to put money up front, if they wish to evade spam filters. Microsoft has also said it is working on another technique to verify e-mail.
Such techniques rely on widespread adoption for effectiveness. Yahoo said it had submitted DomainKeys to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a standards-setting body, and will allow developers to implement it for free.
Sendmail also has agreed to incorporate the technology into its e-mail software, Yahoo said.
A Yahoo representative was not immediately available for comment.
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