Yahoo! and Cisco buddy up to fight forgery

Yahoo! and Cisco Systems are collaborating on an authentication technology to reduce email forgery, the companies said on Wednesday.

The specification, called DomainKeys Identified Mail, or DKIM, relies on public key cryptography. The system attaches a digital signature to outgoing email so that recipients can verify that the message comes from its claimed source.

The technology merges Yahoo!'s anti-spam proposal called DomainKeys with Cisco's Internet Identified Mail system - and the specification will be offered royalty-free to the industry, according to the companies.

AOL and Microsoft have said they're looking at DomainKeys but the providers are pushing their own email authentication technologies. AOL's SPF and Microsoft's Sender ID check an email's identity through its internet protocol address, and can be used alongside DomainKeys.

Stefanie Olsen writes for CNET News.com