IIJ Implements DMARC to the IIJ Secure MX Service

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TOKYO-August 21, 2014-Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (IIJ, NASDAQ: IIJI, TSE1: 3774), one of Japan's leading Internet access and comprehensive network solutions providers, today announced it will apply DMARC, Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance, in its IIJ Secure MX Service beginning on August 24, 2014. The IIJ Secure MX Service is a cloud-based service that offers security measures required for enterprise email systems.

DMARC is a technical specification to reduce email-based abuse, synthesizing two well-known standards—SPF (*1) and DKIM (*2). It allows domain administrators to set policies indicating how recipients of fraudulent email should react. The sender domain administrator sets a DMARC policy indicating whether to allow "none", "quarantine", or "reject" emails that fail both SPF and DKIM authentication. In addition to improving the filtering of SPAM and of phishing emails sent using customer domains, this helps to ensure the authenticity of emails sent from customer domains.

The IIJ Secure MX Service marks incoming emails with DMARC authentication results so that recipients can react according to the policies set by the domain administrator. Customers do not need to spend time and cost modifying their mail servers or performing other tasks, and instead can sort fraudulent email based on DMARC authentication results.

ISPs in the United States have already begun to support DMARC, and its use is spreading quickly. Twitter reports around 110 million messages per day were spoofing its domains prior to deploying DMARC, reduced to only 1,000 per day after publishing a "reject" policy. More than 25 million emails messages spoofing PayPal were rejected during the 2013 holiday buying season. (*3) These cases have drawn attention to how effective DMARC is in reducing fraudulent email use.

IIJ intends to spread the use of DMARC throughout Japan and will continue to develop its services to create secure messaging environments.

• (*1) Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an effective method against email spoofing used in sender domain authentication. SPF confirms the integrity of the sender domain name and sender mail server to determine whether email was sent from a valid mail server.
• (*2) DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is another sender domain authentication technology that allows recipients to determine the validity of an email by verifying the digital signature attached to the email by the sender.
• (*3) Source: http://www.dmarc.org/

The statements within this release contain forward-looking statements about our future plans that involve risk and uncertainty. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to the documents furnished by Internet Initiative Japan Inc. with the SEC, specifically the most recent reports on Forms 20-F and 6-K, which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements.

For inquiries, contact

IIJ Corporate Communications

• +81-3-5205-6310
• +81-3-5205-6377
• press@iij.ad.jp