Gartner slams Microsoft spam plans

Analyst Gartner has criticised Microsoft's grand plan to tackle spam, warning that its proposed scheme could take years to come to fruition and even then be largely ineffective.

The organisation predicts that less than 25 per cent of enterprises will have introduced any email authentication standards by 2005.

In a statement Gartner research director Arabella Hallawell was sceptical about the effectiveness of Microsoft's proposed Caller ID for Email initiative.

"Caller ID for Email is the third major email authentication specification to emerge," she said.

"These multiple specifications will impede adoption, as will the need to introduce new inter-enterprise practices and technology upgrades."

Microsoft's Caller ID for Email, unveiled last week at the RSA Security conference in San Francisco, involves beefing up the SMTP engine so that senders will find it much harder to spoof domains.

Gartner was also unimpressed by Microsoft's proposed authentication-based upgrades to its Exchange email application, "given the lack of credibility in the security of Microsoft products".

Hallawell pointed out that spam-filtering software relies on sophisticated detection and content management, and firms should not expect Microsoft "to provide the best-of-breed capabilities in these areas".

But Microsoft's plans will lead to a shake-up in the anti-spam market, with smaller security companies getting pushed out.

In the long term this may be beneficial, but the analyst warned users not to expect significant reductions in the volume of spam before 2006.