Bill Gates Outlines Technology Vision to Help Stop Spam

It is also Microsoft's view that organizations certified by an IETA as complying with good e-mail behavior policies should be easily recognizable by both filtering software and end users via safe lists or digital certificates. Spam filters can interpret possession of a certificate or membership on a safe list as strong evidence that the sender of the message is not a spammer, thus enabling the technology to better distinguish legitimate e-mail from spam.

Alternatives for Smaller SendersSmall organizations need an alternate and inexpensive method to avoid having their e-mail classified as spam, since e-mail policy compliance would necessarily be costly. To address this issue, Microsoft proposes that noncertified organizations pay in computer cycles instead of cash.Spammers send millions of messages every day to be profitable because response rates are so low, so their computers spend only a small fraction of a second processing each message.

In a spammer's economic model, spending even five or 10 seconds per message could be prohibitively expensive. Smaller organizations, however, that send low volumes of e-mail generally have an abundance of computer processing power available. Although they can't afford to spend cash for a certificate, they can afford to spend a few seconds on each message.

Microsoft has developed a way for noncertified senders to prove that they have indeed spent a few seconds of computer processing time on each message. Spam filters can then recognize that a sender is not a spammer because the sender has demonstrated behavior that would put a spammer out of business.

Ongoing Commitment

Microsoft continues to invest heavily in anti-spam research and development and to look at innovative ways that technology can contribute to helping solve the spam problem for users worldwide. On a broader scale, Microsoft believes it will take a coordinated approach that includes advanced technology, industry self-regulation, consumer education, effective legislation and targeted enforcement against illegal spammers to solve the spam problem. The company remains committed to working with customers, partners, industry, government and law-enforcement agencies around the world to help put an end to spam.

More information on Microsoft's overall anti-spam approach can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/antispam/ .

Detailed technical specifications for the CSRI and Caller ID for E-Mail proposals are available for public review and comment at http://www.microsoft.com/spam/ .