No more forged emails! - SPF and DKIM

Secure email is vital to any organization. If you have ever received email from your employee or a company you do business with, but it's actually really from a malicious/unknown source, then you've seen first hand how easy it is to forge emails. Our previous blog post covered how users can prevent important email from landing in their spam folder. This post covers a common question we get from our customer base; why does sent email end up in the recipient's spam folder or isn't delivered at all?

Every recipient is unique and has different spam filtering settings for messages being received. Typically, recipient servers don't provide information about spam filtering to the sender of an email simply because it makes the recipient vulnerable by giving too much information to actual spammers who could then potentially get around the filters. This is where SPF and DKIM authentication come into play. Authentication legitimizes the source of the email to prove it isn't forged and is a thorough way of ensuring your email is delivered to the person you are sending to.

A sender policy framework (SPF) record is a type of DNS (domain name server) record that identifies which mail servers are permitted to send email on behalf of your domain. SPF records are used to prevent spammers from sending email on your behalf. It essentially asks, "is this email coming from an authorized mail server?" If it isn't, the email is likely to be spam.

A DomainKeys identified mail (DKIM) record simply adds a digital signature to emails your organization sends. The email recipient servers check if the signatures match and if so, the email hasn't been tampered with and is from a legitimate sender. Fundamentally, the DKIM check verifies that the message is signed and associated with the correct domain.

Having both SPF and DKIM records in place can greatly reduce the potential of spam email appearing to be sent from your domain and also improves email deliverability. An easy way to check if your domain's SPF and DKIM records are in compliance with Google's recommendation is by going here: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/checkmx/check.

The interlockit.com SPF address declares that Google Apps, Freshbooks, Sendgrid, and MailChimp are all authorized to send email on behalf of our domain. 

Our team at InterlockIT has assisted many hundreds of companies and organizations update and correct their DNS records resulting in very happy customers. Be sure to contact us today to prevent email forgery for good!

Important mail going to spam? Read this!

It happens to a lot of users. Your boss, colleague, or client asks if you've completed the first draft and you look at them with a blank face, with no clue as to what they are referring to. You either missed the email or it somehow landed in your spam folder which you rarely ever check. "Why is important email landing in my spam" you ask? Simple, you get Gmail to stop checking for spam - sort of.

If you're finding that wanted incoming email is landing in spam, here is a way to redirect it to your inbox. Filters are one of the most powerful tools integrated in Gmail. If you understand the power of email filters, you can do quite a lot with them to manage your inbox efficiently and productively. Follow these simple steps to setup a domain filter to automate "spam email" to redirect into your inbox.

1. Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of your inbox and select Settings.

2. Select the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab and at the bottom select Create a new filter.

3. In the resulting popup, place this text (without quotes) “is:spam” into the "Has the Words box", enter the domain name from which wanted mail is landing in spam, and click Create filter with this search.

4. Check the Never send to Spam box (and any other boxes you'd like a match for) and click Create filter.

That's it! You've now created a filter to prevent wanted mail from that specific domain from going to your spam folder. Technically we haven't stopped Gmail from checking spam, but this filter functions in practically the same way, so no more scavenging through your spam folder to find that lost unread email. Next time you get an important email from that domain in spam, it will automatically pass along to your inbox as a regular piece of mail.

In our next post we'll cover why your sent mail may be going to your recipients spam folder and why having your domain's SPF and DKIM records up to date is crucial to having your email delivered appropriately. To learn more about how Gmail and other Google Apps can make your company more efficient and productive, be sure to contact our InterlockIT team!