What does that even mean?
Have you ever gotten an email from someone you trust, only to find out it was actually a fake, trying to trick you into giving away personal information? It’s like receiving a letter that looks like it’s from your bank, but it’s really a sneaky fake. That’s where DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) can help.
Think of DKIM like the holographic sticker on a credit card or a watermark on money. It’s a tool that checks if the sender of an email is real and makes sure the message hasn’t been messed with.
What is DKIM?
DKIM is a way to check if an email is real and to stop phishing and fake emails. The sender signs the email with a special code, called a DKIM signature, and adds it to the email’s header. When the recipient gets the email, their system checks the signature using the sender’s public key, which is stored online.
This process helps confirm that the email is from a trusted sender and hasn’t been changed on the way to the recipient. DKIM is one of the key tools used to protect emails, and when it’s used with SPF and DMARC, it makes emails much safer.
Why is DKIM Important?
DKIM provides several important benefits for keeping emails safe:
- Email authenticity: DKIM uses signatures to verify the sender’s domain, ensuring the recipient can trust where the email came from.
- Email integrity: It also checks that the email hasn’t been changed while traveling from sender to receiver. This keeps the message reliable.
- Better email deliverability: When emails are verified as legitimate, they are less likely to end up in the spam folder and more likely to reach the inbox.
- Less spam and phishing: DKIM makes it easier to spot fake or harmful emails, which helps reduce spam and phishing attacks.
- Works with SPF and DMARC: DKIM can be combined with other security methods like SPF and DMARC to create a stronger system for keeping emails safe.
How DKIM Works
DKIM uses digital signatures to check that the email’s sender is real and the email hasn’t been altered. Here’s how it works:
- The sender’s email system creates a special DKIM signature for each email.
- It selects certain parts of the email (like the header and body) and creates a unique code, or hash, for those parts.
- The hash is encrypted using a private key that belongs to the sender’s domain.
- The DKIM signature is added to the email header, and the email is sent.
- When the recipient’s email system gets the email, it checks the DKIM signature.
- The recipient’s system uses the sender’s public key (found in their DNS records) to decrypt the signature.
- The system then rehashes the selected parts of the email and compares the new hash to the one in the DKIM signature.
- If they match, the email is considered safe and real. If they don’t match, the email might be flagged as suspicious.
DKIM works by combining hashing with public and private key encryption to keep emails safe. But it’s important to use DKIM with other methods like SPF and DMARC to fully protect your email communication.
This system is crucial for making sure emails are safe, authentic, and trustworthy.
What is SPF?
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a tool used to help stop email spoofing, which is when someone pretends to send an email from a trusted address. Spoofing is often used in phishing attacks and spam. SPF is a key part of email security because it allows the receiving email system to check if the incoming message is from a server that’s approved by the sender’s domain.
This is important because in phishing attacks, scammers make it look like the email is coming from a real business or someone the victim knows. By using SPF, companies can protect their email domain from being used by bad actors who send fake emails. This helps improve email security and boosts the sender’s reputation, making it more likely their emails will be delivered successfully.
What is DMARC?
In 2012, engineers from Microsoft, PayPal, Yahoo!, and Google met to come up with a way to make email authentication even stronger. From that meeting, DMARC was created and soon released to the public.
Now, what exactly is DMARC, how does it work, and why is it important? Let’s answer these questions below, so keep reading!
First, what does DMARC stand for? It stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance.
DMARC builds on two existing email security methods, DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) and SPF (Sender Policy Framework), to add an extra layer of protection for each email.
DKIM works by using a signature to confirm both the source of the email and its content. SPF allows a domain owner to approve which IP addresses can send emails on behalf of their domain name. These methods are used by email services like Gmail and Yahoo.
With DMARC, domain owners can set their own rules, or policy, for how email should be authenticated. The policy tells the receiving server what to do if an email doesn’t pass the DMARC check.
The DMARC policy can also generate reports, showing the results of each test. This helps improve email processes and alerts domain owners if someone tries to send fake emails using their domain.
This probably all sounds very technobabble, however, the bottom line is if you want your emails to have a better chance at reaching the recipient’s mailbox this will help keep your emails out of the spam folder and increase your chances of making it into the inbox.
If you would like to have us set up an SPF record, DMARC and DKIM for your domain we would be happy to help.
