Microsoft's Sender ID goes OSP

My guess is that most people don't even realize how 'at risk' they are to online threats these days. And what better way to take advantage of someone than by going through a trusted channel – their inbox. In response to these threats, Microsoft released SenderID nearly two years ago  to foster online safety by preventing phishing, malware, spam attacks and other e-mail fraud. Today, and furthering its commitment to interoperability, Microsoft announced that it is releasing the SenderID framework specification to the global IT community under the Open Specification Promise. According to the press release, “The application of the OSP will promote further industry interoperability by making the e-mail authentication framework more clearly available to the entire Internet ecosystem, including customers, partners, Internet service providers, registrars and the developer community, no matter what model they use — commercial, open source or academic.”  

In my mind - as important as email is to all of us - SenderID is one of those 'under the hood' technologies that we just can't live without. As an industry we fight online fraud every day and it’s only going to get more difficult as phishers (et al) become more sophisticated. Making SenderID available to the community (under any license) will help synchronize the industry to combat fraud with a widely adopted (600 million + users) and highly useful technology. Under the OSP, we are ensuring that anyone who wants to implement the technology – Microsoft’s Intellectual Property - can do so at no risk and completely free of charge. For more detail about the technology and the OSP, read Matusow's blog... 

Other resources:
Press pass article here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/oct06/10-23OSPSenderIDPR.mspx
Interoperability at Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/interop