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September 22, 2004

Port25 Accepts SenderID

By CXOtoday Staff

Port25 Solutions today released the next version of its flagship software product, PowerMTA. The new version of PowerMTA adds a number of new features that address the top concerns of e-mail service providers and legitimate enterprises who use e-mail as a platform for marketing and customer relationship management.

New features in PowerMTA 3.0 include automated signing and header insertion for SenderID and DomainKeys, verification of message authentication prior to sending, real-time delivery & reputation monitoring, real-time segmentation of messages based on class of mail, and campaign-level delivery policy management.

The concerns addressed in PowerMTA 3.0 include prevention of e-mail fraud, adoption of the latest e-mail authentication specifications and accreditation services, and monitoring of message delivery and sender reputation.

The adoption of e-mail authentication will not immediately eliminate the fraud problem or ensure delivery for e-mail senders. However, authentication provides a critical building block that will help legitimate e-mailers distinguish valid e-mail from spoofed e-mail that fraudulently claims to be sent from a reputable source such as a bank or Internet commerce site. Moreover, authentication provides the foundation for the next generation of spam filtering based on sender reputation.

"E-mail Authentication is a building block. It is not only critical to solve the fraud issue, but it is also a key element of the foundation for what is fast becoming the basis for e-mail filtering and delivery: sender reputation," said Michael Osterman, President and Founder of Osterman Research. "Port25 is uniquely focused and positioned to help senders address both fraud and reputation management with its intelligent gateway product."

Port25 is focused exclusively on e-mail gateway solutions for e-mail marketing and customer communications applications. "Because of our focus and experience with the problems facing e-mail marketers, we have been first to market with outbound support for both Sender ID and DomainKeys along with other advanced features critical to senders," said Bill Karpovich, SVP of Marketing & Strategy at Port25 Solutions.

With these features, a sender gains the capabilities necessary to adopt the latest authentication standards, comply with the requirements of sender accreditation services such as Habeas Sender Warranted E-mail and Ironport's Bonded Sender and proactively manage their reputations as senders of legitimate e-mail. PowerMTA 3.0 also adds a personalization engine that allows senders to easily and efficiently deliver individually customized messages.

A series of new e-mail authentication standards have been proposed in the last year in response to the on-going spam and fraud crisis. E-mail fraud in particular has become an acute problem for consumers and businesses that rely on e-mail for customer relationship management. According to Gartner Research, the damage to U.S. banks and credit card issuers alone in 2003 was over $1.2 billion. The adoption of new e-mail security standards by legitimate senders is a critical first step towards elimination of e-mail fraud.