Secure Email Agent Using the Domain Name System (DNS) as a Trust Infrastructure

Email is one of the most prevalent and critical forms of digital communication in use today. Ironically, it is also one of the least secure. Most email systems provide no means to authenticate the sender of a message, and is hence easily and commonly forged or spoofed, often used to penetrate networks via phishing attacks. Additionally, most email systems provide no means to ensure privacy or confidentiality. Although protocols for securing email have been available for over twenty years, these protocols, by nature of their use of asymmetric cryptography, require users to have the public key or certificate of their correspondents. We propose to develop technology to use the Domain Name System (DNS) to distribute such certificates and keys, making email secure, authenticated, and confidential, curbing the losses from phishing attacks and allowing all people to use email as a simple, readily available means of trustworthy communications.