M3AAWG Recommends TLS

SSL or Secure Sockets Layer is protocol designed to provide a secure way of transmitting information between computer systems. Originally created by Netscape and released publicly as SSLv2 in 1995 and updated to SSLv3 in 1996. TLS or Transport Layer Security was created in 1999 as a replacement for SSLv3. TLS and SSL are most commonly used to create a secure (encrypted) connection between your web browser and websites so that you can transmit sensitive information like login credentials, passwords, and credit card numbers.
M3AAWG published a initial recommendation that urges the disabling of all versions of SSL. It has been a rough year for encryption security, first with Heartbleed vulnerability with the OpenSSL library, and again with POODLE which stands for “Padding Oracle on Downgraded Legacy Encryption” that was discovered by Google security researchers in October of 2014. On December 8, 2014 it was reported that TLS implementations are also vulnerable to POODLE attack, however unlike SSLv3, TLS can be patched where as SSL 3.0 has a fundamental issue with the protocol.

Due to a number of known security issues with SSLv2 and SSLv3, M3AAWG urges the industry to disable all versions of SSL.

M3AAWG are not the only ones calling to leave SSL behind, Firefox disabled all versions of SSL in Firefox 34, Microsoft will disable fallback to SSL 3 in IE11 starting in February 2015 and Apple’s Safari OSX 10.8 and iOS 8.1 have removed all support for SSLv3.
As more mailbox providers enable TLS encryption, it will protect emails in transit from eavesdropping. M3AAWG recommends starting with TLS version 1.2 for mail servers.

Barracuda Email Security Service disruption
Merry Christmas

Related Posts

Some email related news

A couple links to relevant things that are happening in email.
M3AAWG released the Help! I’m on a Blocklist! (PDF link) doc this week. This is the result of 4 years worth of work by a whole lot of people at M3AAWG. I was a part of the working group (“doc champion” in M3AAWG parlance) and want to thank everyone who was involved and contributed to the process. I am very excited this was approved and published so people can take advantage of the collective wisdom of M3AAWG participants.
In other announcements, Gmail announced today on their Google+ page that that they were putting a new “unsubscribe” link next to the sender name when mail is delivered to the Promotions, Social or Forums tab. This appears to be the official announcement of the functionality they announced at the SF M3AAWG last February. It likely means that all users are currently getting the “unsubscribe” link. What Gmail doesn’t mention in that blog post is that this functionality uses the “List-Unsubscribe” header, not the link in the email, but I don’t think anyone except bulk mailers really care about how it’s being done, just that it is.
Also today Gmail announced they were going to recognize usernames with non-Latin or accented characters in the name. Eventually, they claim, they’ll also allow people to get Gmail addresses with accented characters.

Read More

Nominations for the J.D. Falk Award

J.D. Falk was one of the first names I encountered when learning how to read headers and report spam back in the mid-90s. He was one of the folks leading the fight against spam and actively trying to improve the Internet. When I was hired by MAPS I got to work with J.D. and a number of other big-names. One of the things that really surprised me was that this “internet elder” I had imagined was younger than me and with much bluer hair.
After MAPS imploded, J.D. and I carved out separate careers. He went to work at a number of major mailbox providers and I started delivery consulting. Our paths crossed occasionally, usually at conferences, but we also were on a number of mailing lists together. I kept an eye on J.D and his impact on email delivery. In fact, J.D. was responsible for a lot of the modern anti-spam techniques implemented at ISPs.
Eventually, he moved to Return Path where he worked on their Receiver Support group; even as he continually argued against the false sender / receiver dichotomy that so many people endorse.
M3AAWG, with financial support from Return Path, created the J.D. Falk award to recognize people who work to create a better online world. Nominations for the 3rd annual J.D. Falk award are now open. The M3AAWG website has more details.

Read More

Horses, not zebras

I was first introduced to the maxim “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras” when I worked in my first molecular biology lab 20-some-odd years ago. I’m no longer a gene jockey, but I still find myself applying this to troubleshooting delivery problems for clients.
It’s not that I think all delivery problems are caused by “horses”, or that “zebras” never cause problems for email delivery. It’s more that there are some very common causes of delivery problems and it’s a more effective use of time to address those common problems before getting into the less common cases.
This was actually something that one of the mailbox provider reps said at M3AAWG in SF last month. They have no problem with personal escalations when there’s something unusual going on. But, the majority of issues can be handled through the standard channels.
What are the horses I look for with delivery problems.

Read More