Outlook.com Gets a Security Boost from Microsoft


Bangalore: Microsoft announced that their latest email service, Outlook.com is about to replace Hotmail and has gained security boosts against phishing and spam.

The new features include support for DMARC email authentication standard and assistance to EV certificates. According to Microsoft, these new features clearly enhance the SSL certification within mails.

DMARC or Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance, is a technical specification intended to standardize how email recipient systems authenticate incoming messages using the SPF and DKIM technologies.

"Our DMARC implementation helps protect you by making it easier to visually identify mail from senders as legitimate, and helps keep spam and phishing messages from ever reaching your inbox. If a sender supports DMARC, we put a trusted sender logo next to their email indicating it is legitimate," wrote Krish Vitaldevara from the Outlook.com Program Management Team in a blog.

With EV (Extended Validation) Certificates implemented in Outlook.com, Microsoft certifies that they can almost stop hackers from getting into individual mail users and stealing their confidential information’s.

"While malicious sites might try to impersonate a site's UI or brand, they cannot replicate the browser's green bar. And by deploying EV certificates broadly we can apply 2048 bit encryption not just to your login, but to your actual mail content as well," Vitaldevara wrote.

Microsoft announced that they have some extended plans to support EV Certificates in its SkyDrive online storage service and other of its sites soon.