Authentication Adoption Gains Momentum at Email Authentication Summit II

Sellout Crowd Learns Business Value of Authentication From Real-World Case Studies by Fortune 500 Companies

By Derek Iwasiuk
DomainInformer.com
May 03, 2006

CHICAGO - The Email Authentication Summit II, held April 19 in Chicago, was a great success as industry leaders provided insight into the real-world deployment and the business value of authentication to a sold out crowd of over 500. Built around the theme "Authentication & Reputation - Building Online Confidence," the event delivered powerful information on how organizations of all sizes can combine authentication and reputation systems to restore trust in email.

Attendance comprised a broad range of Fortune 500 companies across many industry segments including financial institutions, eCommerce, travel, healthcare and commercial. The response to the event has been very positive. Trevor Hughes, executive director of the Email Sender and Provider Coalition notes, "The Summit marked a pivotal point in the evolution of email authentication and the need for businesses to take action. The turnout at the show was very impressive, and I think attendees went away with the feeling that authentication has hit the mainstream. This is a great sign for our industry."

During the past year, adoption of authentication has skyrocketed as IronPort reported that over 3 million domains currently authenticate. In addition, MarkMonitor provided updated research showing that in less than a year, adoption by the Fortune 500 of Sender ID has increased three-fold to over 21 percent.

"The Summit was a powerful statement about the business value of email authentication and the need for the entire ecosystem to work," said Craig Spiezle, director of the Technology Care and Safety Group at Microsoft Corp. "Adoption of Sender ID and DKIM is accelerating, and the Summit underscored how important it is for all businesses to take action to protect their brands, their customers and their employees."

Fortune 500 Companies, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Demonstrate Business Value of Authentication through Case Studies

Case studies from organizations such as Bank of America, Dell, eBay, Microsoft and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce demonstrated how authentication moves beyond curbing spam and adds business value to the organizations that adopt it.

MSN described how authentication plays a pivotal role in ensuring email from legitimate senders makes it to the inbox. While helping to protect approximately 230 million users of Windows Live Mail and MSN Hotmail worldwide, MSN found that combining authentication with user-based reputation systems reduced false positives to zero, and reduced false negatives by more than 85 percent; thus enabling legitimate mailers to protect their brand and domain.

eBay shared how they effectively rolled out SPF and DomainKeys for the over 1.5 billion transactional email messages eBay and PayPal send each month. Representatives from Bank of America and Dell Computer Company discussed how they addressed the technical requirements of integrating authentication into email systems. Microsoft and the U.S Chamber of Commerce reported how Microsoft developed a domain defense strategy to thwart the threats of fraud and identity theft.

"The Summit is a significant example of business and industry working toward the goal of providing business prescriptive guidance to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Internet," said Mike Zaneis, director, Congressional and Public Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "The Chamber remains committed to working with the Summit and helping its three million member business and customers achieve their goals."

Presentations and web casts from the Summit are available at no-charge for download at http://www.emailauthentication.org/summit2006. Plans for a Summit III are already underway, details forthcoming.

NOTE: The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.