An overview of the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) as an anti-phising mechanism

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and discuss its merits for adoption as an anti-phishing mechanism. Design/methodology/approach-All of the active domains in the se zone were probed to determine if they have an SPF-policy. This data collection step is combined with a theoretical discussion of the SPF standard and related initiatives. Findings-This paper finds that the adoption ratio is very low. Few seem to be interested in deploying it, despite it being designed for easy adoption and being consistently implemented in several popular anti-spam solutions. Practical implications-The paper shows that despite the low adoption-ratio the standard merits implementation by IT/IS managers and software vendors. Originality/value-This paper analyzes the adoption ratio, which is valuable both for software vendors and endorsers of the standard. It also provides an over-view of the standard itself as an attempt to avoid common misconceptions about the role of the standard and its relation to other anti-spam initiatives.