Cisco & Yahoo! to use cryptography to combat spam

"Return to sender," exhorted the ostensibly late Elvis Presley, appending the notation "address unknown." And if the return address on the e-mail in your Yahoo! inbox is cryptic, that's just what shall happen. The Internet mega-portal is teaming up with Chief Executive John Chambers' Cisco Systems to do away with odious spam in a whole new way. The tech firms announced late Wednesday that they have forged together two means of harnessing cryptography. The hybrid code technology will help determine whether an e-mail sender's address is bona fide or false--as spammers often evade capture via counterfeit addresses--and reject any mail from spurious sources. Many e-mail providers such as Microsoft Hotmail and Time Warner's America Online tout their spam filters, either included for free or available for a premium.