Do you use SPF, DKIM and DMARC for email security?

Email is a critical communication tool for businesses and individuals worldwide. However, it’s also a common vector for cyber threats like phishing and spoofing.

Three ways these threats are combatted are Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC).

SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

SPF is an email authentication method designed to prevent spammers from sending emails on behalf of your domain. By creating an SPF record in your Domain Name System (DNS), you can specify which mail servers are authorized to send email from your domain.

Basic Steps for Implementing SPF

1. Identify the mail servers that are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain.
2. Create an SPF record in the DNS for your domain. The record might look something like:

v=spf1 ip4:192.0.2.0/24 ip4:198.51.100.123 a -all

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

DKIM provides an encryption key and digital signature that verifies that an email message was not faked or altered.

Basic Steps for Implementing DKIM in Exchange Online

1. Generate a pair of cryptographic keys - one private and one public.

• The private key is kept secure on your mail server.
• The public key is added to the DNS records for your domain.

1. When an email is sent, it is signed with the private key.

See Microsoft's documentation for more details on how to set this up in Exchange Online.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)

DMARC unifies the SPF and DKIM authentication mechanisms into a common framework and allows domain owners to declare how they would like email from that domain to be handled if it fails authentication tests.

Basic Steps for Implementing DMARC in Exchange Online

1. Ensure SPF and DKIM are in place.
2. Create a DMARC policy record, which will look something like:

v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[email protected]

By implementing these three protocols in Exchange Online, you can significantly enhance the security of your email communications, protect your brand reputation, and increase email deliverability rates.

Avoid allow-listing domains

Some companies will ask you to add their domain to an allow list, to avoid their emails getting marked as spam. Similarly, you might have internal emails that are sent from a 3rd party service, such as a contact form on your website - and to stop these emails getting marked as spam, it can be tempting to add your own domain to an allow list.

This is a bad idea, as it allows emails to bypass your spam filters. This means emails that are spoofing your domain name (or another domain in your allow list) will get through.

If SPF, DKIM and DMARC are set up correctly, there's no need to add domains to an allow list.

To send from a 3rd party, there are many ways to make sure your emails are authorized. For example, for a WordPress website you can use FluentSMTP to send emails through Microsoft 365 (or another SMTP server).