Three of the industries most respected e-mail providers and one of the most popular ISP stepped up today. That is to say that Yahoo, Microsoft, America Online. and EarthLink have released recommendations for how to stop SPAM. These recommendations are geared towards ISPs, E-mail providers, governments, and corporations.
An industry organization representing heavyweight e-mail providers Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., America Online Inc. and EarthLink Inc. released recommendations for ending unsolicited commercial ("spam") e-mail, according to a statement by the group. The Anti-Spam Technical Alliance"s (ASTA) Statement of Intent, released Tuesday, includes a list of suggestions and "best practice" recommendations for Internet service providers (ISPs), e-mail service providers, governments, corporations and bulk e-mail senders.
Among other things, ASTA recommended that ISPs shut down so-called "open relays," or e-mail servers that allow parties that do not own the mail server to relay mail through them without needing to log in first. The group also suggested that ISPs crack down on virus and worm-infected computers on their network and closely monitor features that let people automatically register for ISP accounts.
If implemented, and with the backing of ASTA member companies, the recommendations could greatly reduce the amount of spam e-mail, the group said. The recommendations are the product of more than a year of collaboration between representatives of the member companies and focus, mainly, on ISPs, whose networks are often used to distribute spam.