THE DMA CO-UNDERWRITES EMAIL AUTHENTICATION IMPLEMENTATION SUMMIT 2005: CALLS ON MARKETERS TO AUTHENTICATE E-MAIL

NEW YORK, May 11, 2005 – The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) announced today that it will participate as an Industry Underwriter at the Email Authentication Implementation Summit 2005, to be held at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel on July 12, 2005. This industry education effort is meant to help protect brands and customers from phishing and spoofing attacks and help prevent the spread of spam.

The DMA is calling on all marketers that use e-mail in their marketing mix to immediately adopt the authentication protocols already available in the market. This is an important step in the overall effort to preserve e-mail as a valuable marketing communications tool.

"We need to protect brands, prevent consumer fraud, and ensure trust in e-mail," said John A. Greco, Jr., president & CEO, The DMA. "There are interoperable, low-cost and easy-to-implement authentication solutions in the marketplace that marketers can adopt today. We urge them to do so."

The Email Authentication Implementation Summit 2005 will provide marketers with actionable information and recommendations on how to create and publish SPF records and implement authentication. In addition, noted industry experts will discuss the challenges and lessons learned that can help save time and resources while improving overall e-mail deliverability.

Email Authentication Implementation Summit 2005 will highlight IP-based verification methods, such as the Sender ID Framework (SIDF) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF), and complementary signature-based approaches such as Yahoo! Inc.’s DomainKeys and Cisco Systems Inc.’s Identified Internet Mail.

Esther Dyson, editor of Release 1.0 at CNET Networks Inc., will give the keynote address and moderate the daylong event, which will be hosted by a steering committee representing a broad cross-section of online industry leaders, including Bigfoot Interactive Inc., The DMA, the E-mail Service Provider Coalition, Microsoft Corp., Symantec Corp., and Sendmail Inc.

The DMA estimates that legitimate commercial e-mail resulted in approximately $39 billion in sales in 2004, including about $9 billion in small business sales. The association believes that e-mail can deliver even more value for consumers and more dollars for the U.S. and global economies if scams proliferated through spam and phishing/spoofing can be reduced or eliminated ations can be reduced.

The private sector is currently testing and deploying "Phase One" IP-based authentication solutions such as Sender ID and SPF. Additionally, cryptographic protocols such as DomainKeys and Identified Internet Mail are also being developed and tested.

"While we recognize that authentication, by itself, will not solve all of the problems in the current e-mail environment, our hope is that it will have a strong impact on the growing problem of spoofing and phishing schemes that damage brands and defraud consumers," Greco continued.

The DMA and its Interactive Marketing Advisory Board have taken a leadership position in helping marketers get up-to-speed on the latest authentication technologies, including Mr. Greco’s participation last fall in the "Real World Effects" panel at the E-Mail Authentication Summit sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Washington, DC. Through a series of member briefings and Webinars, The DMA also has reached out to thousands of marketers over the past year, and it will continue to do so as developments unfold.

"E-mail authentication offers the promise of helping to reduce spam, addresses some of the major challenges that currently affect legitimate e-mail senders, and encourages the continued evolution of e-mail as a global vehicle for communication, commerce, and education," said Greco. "In the end, this is an effort to protect brands and consumers.

In addition to the steering committee, the summit is being underwritten by more than two dozen industry leaders and organizations, including the Anti-Phishing Working Group, Barracuda Networks, CipherTrust Inc., Cisco, Cloudmark Inc., Digital Impact, DoubleClick Inc., GoDaddy.com, Goodmail Systems Inc., Habeas Inc., Harte-Hanks, Internet Identity, IronPort Systems Inc., MailFrontier Inc., The OpenGroup, Piper Software, Port25 Solutions Inc., Quris Inc., Release 1.0, Return Path Inc., StrongMail Systems Inc., TRUSTe, Tumbleweed, and Yahoo! Inc.

Organizers expect more than 300 IT professionals, business leaders, and e-commerce executives to attend the summit at the Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway, New York. More information and online registration can be found at www.emailauthentication.org/summit2005.

About The DMA

The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading trade association for businesses and organizations interested in direct, interactive, and database marketing, which in 2004 generated more than $2.3 trillion in U.S. sales, including $143.3 billion in catalog sales and $52.5 billion in Web-driven sales. In addition to catalogs and the Web, DMA members employ a wide variety of marketing media, including mail, e-mail, telephone, newspapers and magazines, interactive television, and radio, among others. Founded in 1917, The DMA today has more than 5,200 corporate, affiliate, and chapter members from the US and 44 other nations, including 55 companies listed on the Fortune 100. Reflecting the significant and growing role that direct marketing plays in today's advertising mix, The DMA's membership represents marketers from every business segment, including catalogers, Internet retailers, retail stores, nonprofit organizations, advertising agencies, financial services providers, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, industrial manufacturers, and a host of other vertical segments, as well as the service industries that support marketers.

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