Making Email More Secure: Understanding DKIM and SPF
Imagine you’re sending an important letter to a friend. You write your message, put it in an envelope, and drop it in the mailbox with your address (From Address) and your friend's address (To Address). But what if someone along the way tampers with your letter, changes the contents, or even forges a letter pretending to be you? Your friend might receive a completely different message, or worse, never get it at all.
This is exactly the kind of problem businesses face with email security. Just like traditional letters, emails can be intercepted, modified, or forged. To protect email communication, organizations use two important security measures: DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) and SPF (Sender Policy Framework).
Zylker Techfix encountered a major issue without these security measures : customers weren’t receiving support emails. Some emails bounced back, while others landed in spam folders. Without DKIM and SPF, email providers couldn’t verify whether Zylker’s emails were genuine or forged.
Understanding DKIM
Like official letters have signatures or company seals to prove authenticity, DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) does the same for emails.
DKIM : The Signature Seal for Emails
- DKIM attaches a cryptographic signature to every email you send.
- When the recipient’s email service (like Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo) gets the email, it checks this signature against your company’s domain records.
- If the signature matches, the email is verified as authentic and delivered safely.
- If the signature is missing or doesn’t match, the email might get rejected or marked as spam.
Adapting Custom SMTP for Public Domains
Using email forwarding and two-factor authentication, Zylker Techfix used public domains like Microsoft and Google with Zoho SMTP. Configuring DKIM was not the solution in this case; instead, the Custom SMTP setup within Zoho Desk resolved the issue. To further enhance security, they could enable Custom SMTP OAuth for a passwordless configuration.
Why did Zylker Techfix Implement DKIM?
Zylker Techfix used organization-level email addresses from a domain procured through their official website. These addresses were used by different departments. However, they faced email bounces due to authentication failures when sending messages via Zoho’s servers. This disrupted their customer support services, as bounced emails prevented ticket creation.
To resolve this, they enabled DKIM authentication in Zoho Desk. The setup was simple:
- Added the DKIM public key as a TXT record in their DNS settings.
- Verified the key using the "Verify" option in Zoho Desk.
- Ensured all outgoing emails carried the DKIM signature to authenticate email communications.
By enabling DKIM, Zylker Techfix significantly improved email deliverability, reduced email tampering, and prevented spoofing.
Understanding SPF
Now imagine you’re sending the package to your friend through a trusted courier service like FedEx or UPS. If someone tries to deliver a fake package using their branding, the courier service will refuse to accept it.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) works in the same way—it ensures that only authorized mail servers can send emails on behalf of your domain.
SPF: The "Authorized Courier"
- SPF acts as a list of trusted email servers that are allowed to send emails from your domain.
- When an email is received, the recipient's email provider checks whether it came from an authorized server.
- If the email comes from a trusted source, it is delivered; else it is rejected or marked as spam.
How did Zylker Techfix implement SPF?
Set up SPF by specifying specified email services as their authorized email senders.
To improve security, Zylker Techfix set up SPF records to tell email providers:
"Only emails sent from Authorized email servers should be considered legitimate. If an email comes from another server, don’t trust it!"
The Benefits
The Benefits
Setting up SPF prevented spam, fraudulent emails, and email spoofing while ensuring better email deliverability.
After implementing DKIM and SPF, email deliverability improved, customers received emails without issues, and communication became more secure and professional.
Final Thoughts for Every Business
Whether you’re a small startup or a large enterprise, email security matters. Without DKIM and SPF, your business risks lost emails, email spoofing or tampered messages.
Enable DKIM and SPF today!
Access your files securely from anywhere
New to Zoho Recruit?
Zoho Developer Community
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources
New to Zoho Survey?
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Bigin?
Topic Participants
Lydia | Zoho Desk
Sticky Posts
Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community
With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our featuresShare your Zoho Desk story with us!
Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge.Tip #1: Learn to pick the right channels
Mail, live chat, telephony, social media, web forms—there are so many support channels out there. Trying to pick the right channels to offer your customers can get pretty confusing. Emails are most useful when the customer wants to put things on record. However, escalated or complicated issues should not be resolved over email because it's slow and impersonal. When you need immediate responses, live chat is more suitable. It's also quick and convenient, so it's the go-to channel for small issues.Welcome to Zoho Desk Community - Say hello here!
Hello everyone! Though we have been here for a while, it’s time to formally establish the Zoho Desk Community; we’re really happy to have you all here! This can be the place where you take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. We’d love to hear all about you, what you do, what company or industry you work for, how you use Zoho Desk and anything else that you will like to share! Here’s a little about me. I am Chinmayee. I have been associated with Zoho since 2014. I joined hereWebinar 1: Blueprint for Customer Service
With the launch of a host of new features in Zoho Desk, we thought it’ll be great to have a few webinars to help our customers make the most of them. We’re starting off with our most talked about feature, Blueprint in Zoho Desk. You can register for the Blueprint webinar here: The webinar will be delivered by our in-house product experts. This is a good opportunity to ask questions to our experts and understand how Blueprint can help you automate your service processes. We look forward to seeing
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
Zoho CRM Plus Resources
Zoho Books Resources
Zoho Subscriptions Resources
Zoho Projects Resources
Zoho Sprints Resources
Qntrl Resources
Zoho Creator Resources
Zoho CRM Resources
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
Zoho Show Resources
Get Started. Write Away!
Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.
Zoho CRM コンテンツ
-
オンラインヘルプ
-
Webセミナー
-
機能活用動画
-
よくある質問
-
Ebook
-
-
Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho サービスのWebセミナー
その他のサービス コンテンツ
Nederlandse Hulpbronnen
ご検討中の方
Recent Topics
Narrative 13: Importing your data
Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system: BTS Series Narrative 13: Importing your data When importing data into an application, it is crucial to prevent data loss or duplication. These types of errors can hinder the development of a clean andBlueprint Not Triggering When Lead Status Is Updated by Workflow (IndiaMART Integration)
I have set up a blueprint that triggers when a lead’s status is “New Lead.” Our CRM is integrated with IndiaMART, and when leads are created from IndiaMART, their Lead Status is initially set to None. To handle this, I created a workflow that automaticallyUpdate Subform in specific field(Status) without affecting other fields in Zoho CRM using Deluge?
Scenario: PRODUCT Module(change name Plot) in any product status change From Available to Booked then on PROJECT Custom Module have Subform So, Subform name is Property Details now in that Subform 1 field is STATUS that update according to product statusYouTube Live #2: Agreement Intelligence with Zoho Sign's eSign AI assistant
Hi there, We're back again with our YouTube live series and this time, we'll take you through our holistic agreement intelligence powered signature workflows. Struggling to draft an agreement? Need help double-checking clauses and going through complicatedCan I Build a POS using ZOHO creator and integrate it with ZOHO Books?
Hello, I have a Zoho Books account and I was wondering if I can have a POS system that integrates with it. Primarily with Inventory, Customers and Payment and ofcourse Create invoices and credit notes. So, would Zoho creator provide me with this solution? Thank you,An important update for Zoho Cliq desktop users
The latest version of the Zoho Cliq desktop app (v1.8.0) will no longer be supported on macOS 10.15 Catalina and earlier versions. This is because the framework we use (Electron) no longer supports some older macOS versions. If you’re using macOS 10.15Zoho Projects - Visual improvement to parent and sub-task relationship
Hi Projects Team, My feature request is to improve sub-task visibility. Please see screenshot below. I really think parent child relationships could be visually improved. Even if the first letter of the parent task was inline with other same level tasksItems Below Reorder Point Report?
Is there a way to run a report of Items that are below the Reorder Point? I don't see this as a specific report, nor can I figure out how to customize any of the other stock reports to give me this information. Please tell me I'm missing something sNew Toolbar in Zoho Sheet
We have revamped our toolbar design in this new version of Zoho Sheet. Below are some screenshots to help you get accustomed to this new interface. Click on the picture below to view the animated image in its original size. Scroll down this post to learn about the changes. Highlight of Changes: The previous format tab is now split into 2 tabs - Home and Format. The Home tab contains the commonly used functions and the Format tab holds formatting related options. Under the Home tab towards the farZoho inbuilt Telephony made a lot of issues!
Hi there, I am a user that I am working with zoho inbuilt telephony around 1 month. Non of my colleagues are happy with this app! most of the time customer cannot hear my customer service team, customers say our voice is breaking. whenever Telephony supportSending workflow notifications using popular chat services
Hello everyone, We have introduced instant and scheduled notifications on some of the most popular chat platforms to facilitate easy collaboration, quick action, and wider reach. Workflow notifications can be sent to the following chat platforms: ZohoWebhook not firing.
I created a webhook using the Web UI, it looks very nice and the testing worked without an issue, but when i save/ update a ticket, the webhook is not firing. Here are the details of the web-hook i get from using the API "modifiedTime": "2019-10-22T09:23:37.380Z",Adding Images to a Quote in Zoho CRM
We are currently preparing to use Quotes in Zoho CRM and we are building out our Quote templates. We came across an issue of not being to add Images of the products to the Quote - specifically in the body of the Quote templates. This is a problem,Applications built with Zoho Creator
Hi, I’m really interested in seeing how others have built their application using Zoho Creator, especially those designed for external users (clients, vendors, or the public). If you’ve developed something along those lines and don’t mind sharing, I’dIs it posssible to add Asap Widget on Wordpress?
I have tried to add the ASAP widget so users could iniciate chats and see the KB information but nothings seems to work. I have tried to add the script using a php snippet that adds the to the footers and also tried one for the header in the functioRequire ticket resolution
Hi Zoho team, Is there a way to require resolution even if an agent did not use a blueprint? for example, our blueprint has a "resolve" transition but what if agent revoked blueprint and manually set the status of ticket to closed? Is there a way whereTables from ZohoSheets remove images when updated from source
I have a few tables from a ZohoSheet in a ZohoWriter document that will remove the images in the cells when I refresh from the source. The source still has the images in the table when I go to refresh. After updating from the source, as you can see theAPI Pagination Error: 'from' Parameter Limit
Hello, I am encountering an error while paging through the Zoho Desk API results: Status code: 422 - {"errorCode":"UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY","message":"The value passed for field 'from' exceeds the range of '0-4999'."} Is 5000 the maximum number of recordsHow to go to the next open ticket in the queue when agents closes ticket
Zoho Desk When agent closes a ticket - eg when they choose 'Send and Close" - where is the setting that automatically redirects them to the next open ticket in the queue?External download link limit
Can You please help us to understand this For Zoho WorkDrive external users, the download limit is a maximum of 5 GB total download size and a maximum of 50 first-level files and folders What is the meaning of first level? We are using these files inCRM verify details pop-up
Was there a UI change recently that involves the Verify Details pop-up when changing the Stage of a Deal to certain things? I can't for the life of me find a workflow or function, blueprint, validation rule, layout rule ect that would randomly make itCustom templates for calendar report
What about being able to design custom templates for the calendar report, as well as for other types of reports? I think more users are waiting for this.Print a price list or price book
Hi Community. Am I right in concluding that Zoho has no functionality to print a price list from either Zoho CRM, Zoho Inventory or Zoho Books? I won't get stuck on the fact that Zoho doesn't sync price books between Zoho CRM and Books/Inventory (moreDisable payment thank-you emails
Hello, can someone please tell me how to disable sending of the "Payment Thank-You" emails?Maximum tags possible in Contacts Records
I read in some documentation that Zoho allows a total of 200 tags across all records. Is this correct? So is it not possible to have one tag per record for 500 records?Any way to "Pay with Check" or "Refund with Check" for Credit Notes?
When we have a Bill in Zoho Books, we can select the "Pay with Check" option which then allows us to print/cut the check directly out of Zoho Books. When we created a Credit Note and want to refund the customer, is there any way to Refund with Check,CRM Mobile reports
When our engineers finish a job they like to email the customer a job report. This is best done todate as an email template but we can find no way to include an image field from that module. Is there any other options?When Zoho Tables Beta will be open to EU data center
Hello all, We in EU are looking at you all using and testing and are getting jealous :) When we will be able to get into the beta also? We don't mind testing and playing with beta software. Thank you!Start Form on a different page (i.e., hide form pages)?
I have a Zoho form that uses the `Field Alias - Prefill URL` feature. My goal is to have a pre-filled field that directs the user to a specific starting page in the form. For example: The URL will have a field alias that will auto-populate a field withHow can we disable "My Requests"?
We are not using this functionality in our system at all and our users get confused.PayPal payment received recording problem
Hi, A little while back one of our customers used the PayPal payment option to pay an invoice For some reason though the payment is showing up twice within the Payments section of the invoice! Instead of setting the invoice value to ZERO, it now shows a negative value Anyone else face this problem? I've checked PayPal and there is only 1 payment in reality... A bug? Actonia ps: for anyone from Zoho Customer Service or tech team, its Invoice 785 in our accountstring(87) "{"code":"INVALID_TOKEN","details":{},"message":"invalid oauth token","status":"error"} " grtting this error
Using access token i am trying to add sales orders through api but it is throwing errors like the above i have mentioned. Please help me for thatHow to mute chat notification sound by default in Zoho SalesIQ?
We’ve recently embedded the Zoho SalesIQ chatbot on our website, and we’ve noticed that notification sounds sometimes play even when the visitor hasn’t interacted with the chat widget yet. We’re trying to understand two things: Why do these sounds occurKanban View for Projects.
At our organization, we describe active projects with various statuses like "In Proofing" or "Printing" or "Mailing". In the Projects view, one can set these project statuses by selecting from the appropriate drop-down. While this works, it's difficult to view and comprehend the progress of all of your projects relative to each other in a table. Creating a Kanban view for projects where I can move them from one status to another allows me to see where each project is in the order of our workflow.How to Hide Article Links in SalesIQ Answer Bot Responses
I have published an article in SalesIQ, and the Answer Bot is fetching the data and responding correctly. However, it is also displaying the article link, which I don’t want. How can I remove the link so that only the message is shown?Add RECURRING option when adding email to calendar events
When you add an email to a calendar event, there is no option to make that new calendar event into a recurring event. It is counterproductive to make an event from your email to then have to go to your calendar, find the event, and make it recurring.LINE Auto Message Connect to Zoho
When I integrated LINE into the CRM, I was prompted to disable “Chat,” “Auto Response,” and “Greeting Messages,” and to enable the webhook. However, since I have already set up some auto-reply features in LINE, including Rich Messages and greeting automation,Option to block bookings from specific email address or ip adresss in zoho booking
Sometime few of our client keep booking irrelevant booking service just to resolve their queries and they keep booking it again and again whenever they have queries. Currently its disturbing our current communication process and hierarchy which we haveThreaded conversations for emails sent via automation
Hi Guys, I hope you are doing well. Don't you guys think we should have an option in a workflow to notify users either as a new email or the previous email thread. For example, if you have one deal in the process and there are 10 different stages duringCreate folder is fetch fails
coming from zapier... zapier has a google drive task that searches for a specific folder in google drive, and if it fails to find the folder it will create a folder based on the search criteria, and contine along the singluar path of the flow. TryingNext Page