Message Systems Sets Out Roadmap for Safe, Secure Messaging as Industry Transitions to IPv6

In new white paper, executives from Message Systems and email security provider eleven propose solution for managing reputation and deterring abuse in an IPv6 world

June 7, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Message Systems, the industry leader in messaging technology solutions, is greeting World IPv6 Day with a roadmap for maintaining a safe and secure messaging environment as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the email industry begin the transition to the IPv6 Internet address standard. In “Managing Reputation In An IPv6 World,” a new white paper released at the 22nd General Meeting of the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), Alec Peterson, Message Systems VP of Technical Services, and Robert Marchi, Senior Solutions Architect at anti-abuse application partner eleven, propose a novel approach by which ISPs can continue to track subscriber reputation as a means to effectively combat abuse and filter spam.

As Internet Service Providers (ISP) prepare to deploy IPv6, some industry observers have expressed concern that this new standard will impact defenses against messaging abuse. IP reputation has long been a critical element in the defense against abuse with many mailbox providers opting to limit or refuse traffic based on it. Yet conventional approaches to IP reputation tracking will be rendered unworkable as IPv6 expands the Internet address space from 4 billion addresses to an almost incomprehensible 3.4 * 10^38 addresses. This new white paper proposes specific methodologies for tracking reputation in the IPv6 environment by mapping IP prefixes to subscribers, rather than mapping complete addresses to subscribers. While making no claims as the exclusive approach to managing IPv6 reputation, the paper does serve as a starting point to prompt industry dialogue on this critical issue.

“Recent statements in the media that reputation based on IPv6 addresses will be 'impossible' due to the sheer volume of available address space are alarmist and regrettable. What we've put forth in this white paper is a workable framework that demonstrates that IP reputation is not just possible with IPv6, but actually quite achievable,” said George Schlossnagle, Chief Executive Officer for Message Systems. “Our position at Message Systems is that reputation tracking in the emerging IPv6 environment can and must be done. This paper provides concrete suggestions on how to do so, and we look forward to engaging with clients, partners and industry colleagues on these suggestions in the months ahead.”

“With IPv4 reputation tracking, one subscriber equals, roughly, one IP address,” explains Peterson. “IPv6 obviously breaks that model, but ultimately there still will be one IPv6 prefix assigned to a single subscriber. Thus, the challenge becomes how to move from a model that maps a single IP address to a subscriber, to one that maps an IP prefix to a subscriber. This means considering all IP addresses within a given range of addresses together as one, as opposed to the current simplistic mechanism of considering each IP address individually with no aggregation of results. We're proposing that this kind of IP address aggregation should form the basis of IP reputation tracking in the emerging IPv6 environment.”

There is no set timeline for the implementation of IPv6, yet recent events have accelerated the momentum toward adoption. In February, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that the last group of IPv4 addresses had been assigned. Also, in late 2010 the Obama administration directed all federal agencies in the U.S. to upgrade external-facing services to "operationally use native IPv6" by the end of fiscal year 2012. Further guidelines will require federal agencies to upgrade network systems and applications that link to public servers to support native IPv6 by the end of fiscal year 2014. While legacy IPv4 addresses will continue to be commercially available for some time to come, most industry observers agree that the exhaustion of the first-generation address pool, combined with the extraordinarily fast growth of IP devices, will hasten adoption of IPv6.

World IPv6 Day, taking place June 8th, is an event sponsored by the Internet Society, and will involve many of the Internet's largest search engines, content providers and ISPs in a 24-hour test of the IPv6 readiness. Message Systems has long advocated IPv6 adoption, and the company's solutions are fully IPv6-enabled. The Message Systems Momentum platform, the industry's only true message management platform, affords the high performance, flexible and extensible technology framework required by ISPs and carriers for implementing a successful reputation-tracking strategy in the emerging IPv6 environment.

About Message Systems

The industry leader in messaging technology, Message Systems offers a family of software solutions and services that addresses the digital communications needs of today’s most innovative companies. Telecommunications carriers, ISPs, marketing services providers, cloud computing firms and social media companies rely on Message Systems software to power the message-based communications driving their critical business initiatives. Message Systems solutions get billions of unique messages to the right place at the right time every day through the full range of channels: email, SMS text and more. Founded in 1997, the company is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with offices and a network of partners throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, go to messagesystems.com or call 877.887.3031.

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