2024 Email Authentication Standards: Elevating Security with Google and Yahoo

2024 Email Authentication Standards: Elevating Security with Google and Yahoo

In contemporary email communication, email authentication plays a pivotal role in mitigating email fraud, spam, and phishing attacks. Brace yourself for a new level of security. Starting February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo will be implementing robust email authentication requirements to combat harmful messages and emphasize the crucial role of data security. This measure aims to prevent restrictions on sending rates, message blocking, and marking messages as spam.



Who will experience the effects? 

The updated security guidelines apply to all users, particularly those who send 5000 or more than 5000 emails per day from ZOHO DESK. Not following these guidelines may lead to email delivery delays, blocked messages, or the categorization of emails as spam.

Not to worry. We are here to support you with the best possible solutions.

Basic details that every sender should be aware of
 
To safeguard your path in 2024, it is mandatory to follow the fundamental requirements, beginning with email authentications.

When utilizing a Gmail domain in the 'From' address, it is essential to configure the address with its dedicated SMTP for ensuring accurate mail delivery.

For recipients on gmail.com or googlemail.com, it is recommended to publish DMARC for the sender domain to enhance prompt mail delivery. 

Verify with your own SMTP 

In adherence to the new guidelines, reply emails sent from Zoho Desk with From addresses belonging to gmail.com, googlemail.com, to any domains may be bounced or marked as spam. Therefore, we kindly request all customers to configure these From addresses with your own SMTP verification and use TLS for transmitting email rather than Zoho SMTP. If the From addresses were verified previously with your own SMTP, we will continue using the same authentication for all notification emails sent from Zoho Desk.



Rolling out SPF & DKIM  

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) are vital email authentication protocols that protect against spam, phishing, and spoofing. SPF verifies the authenticity of emails from your domain, while DKIM confirms their source by validating authorized servers associated with sending domains. These protocols work together to validate emails, ensuring that they originate from legitimate sources and have not been tampered with during transmission. This implementation enhances the overall security of your email communications by reducing the risk of email spoofing, phishing, and other malicious activities. 

Minimal Spam Rate 

Maintain spam rates below 0.10% and ensure they never exceed 0.30% for optimal email deliverability.

Essential  Requirements for Users Sending 5000 or More Emails Daily 

Implement DMARC Policy 

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance) is an authentication technique that leverages the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) to authenticate emails. This helps in preventing forging emails and engaging in unauthorized activities through them.

 How DMARC Works: 

1: Publish the DMARC policy outlining instructions for mailbox providers' receiving servers on how to handle emails that breach the policy.
2: Authenticate your sender domain by implementing SPF and DKIM.
3: The receiving server will apply the DMARC policy and execute the instructions specified in the policy.
4: The receiving server will send a report detailing how it handled the email to the reporting email address specified in the DMARC record.

Sample: DMARC record
v=DMARC1\; p=none\; rua=mailto:dmarc-aggregate@mydomain.com\; ruf=mailto:dmarc-afrf@mydomain.com\; pct=100

v: Signifies the DMARC version in use.
p: Signifies the policy established by the business.
rua: Specifies the URI for sending a consolidated report, including information on SPF and DKIM validation results, details about the sending and receiving domains, and the percentage of successful authentications.
ruf: Specifies the email address where the comprehensive SPF/DKIM failure report will be delivered.
pct: Denotes the percentage of emails subject to the policy application.

To prevent emails from being marked as spam, bounced, or experiencing delays in delivery, it is mandatory to set your policy (p) to none in DMARC record. “p = none”

If the policy (p) is set to "quarantine" or "reject," the emails will either be redirected to the spam folder or will not be delivered to the recipient, respectively. 

Ensure DMARC Alignment 

DMARC alignment pertains to the uniformity in the alignment of email authentication mechanisms, particularly SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), with the domain asserted by the sender.

Sample DMARC - SPF Alignment

Sender Address

From: Header

Strict Alignment

Relaxed Alignment

support@mycompany.com

support@mycompany.com

Pass

Pass

support@admin. mycompany.com

support@mycompany.com

Fail

Pass

support@mycompany.org

support@mycompany.com

Fail

Fail

 
SPF Strict Alignment: A precise match between the SPF-authenticated domain and the domain specified in the header's "From:" address. 

SPF Relaxed Alignment: The domain indicated in the "From:" address of the header should either match or be a subdomain of the SPF-authenticated domain. 

Sample DMARC - DKIM Alignment

From: Header

DKIM d= domain

Strict Alignment

Relaxed Alignment

support@mycompany.com

mycompany.com

Pass

Pass

support@admin. mycompany.com

mycompany.com

Fail

Pass

support@mycompany.org

mycompany.com

Fail

Fail


DKIM Strict Alignment: A precise match between the relevant DKIM domain and the domain specified in the header's "From:" address. 

DKIM Relaxed Alignment: The domain mentioned in the "From:" address of the header must either coincide with or be a subdomain of the SPF-authenticated domain. 

Add ARC headers 

Implement ARC (Authenticated Received Chain) authentication to avoid Gmail categorizing the email as unauthenticated, especially when utilizing frequent mail forwarding practices.
For additional information on ARC authentication, please refer to the official Google document linked here.

Set up SPF & DKIM 
Mail authentication protocols such as SPF & DKIM should be implemented for organization sending emails to google or yahoo recipients.

What are the consequences if the deadline is not met? 

Adhering to the sender requirements before the deadline is crucial for optimizing email delivery. Failure to meet the criteria detailed in this article may lead to your email not reaching its destination as intended or being categorized as spam.

Quick Summary:

The Update - Gmail and Yahoo are implementing robust email authentication standards from February 2024.
The Effects - Failure to meet these requirements may result in emails being categorized as spam or not reaching their intended destination.
The Action to be taken - Users sending 5000 or more emails daily must implement SPF,  DKIM and publish DMARC policies. 


Regards,
Sumaya Howth - Product Manager
The Zoho Desk Team

    • Sticky Posts

    • Webinar 2: Supercharged customer support for growing business

      Join us for this webinar and learn how to step up your support game using a real-time communication platform to generate happier, more successful customers. In this live webinar, we will will discuss the importance of SalesIQ for your support team and how it can help you:  Understand your customers better and their journeys to proactively support and engage them even before they ask for help.  Integrating real time conversations into Zoho Desk’s Support, providing a conversational customer service
    • Customize Colors of your Customer Self Service Portal

      You asked for it. We heard you. We're happy to roll out the most sought after feature request, Customizing the Colors of your Customer Self-service Portal. Now you can set the color of your customer portal to mimic your company's web site, so that your customers visiting the portal will not feel alienated by the default theme.  Go ahead and configure the color of the header, tabs, fonts and background according to your needs. You can either choose between default color themes like Blue, Grey, Green
    • Edit and Delete options in Comments

      A lot of teams have been using ticket comments extensively to collaborate everyday. Notification Center further improved this experience by bringing real-time updates. As we continue to build more improvements to this experience, we've shipped a small-yet-important
    • 2024 Email Authentication Standards: Elevating Security with Google and Yahoo

      In contemporary email communication, email authentication plays a pivotal role in mitigating email fraud, spam, and phishing attacks. Brace yourself for a new level of security. Starting February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo will be implementing robust email
    • Announcing the New and Improved Article Editor

      KBase articles are known to help customers, find solutions to problems on their own and set the stage for ticket deflection. That said, the way you present your KBase content is the clinching factor that ensures your customers stick around to consume it.  We took it upon ourselves to build an editor that allows you to publish articles without delving into the code. Well, at least for the most part. With more options and a redefined interface, the article editor in Zoho Desk is now better than ever!
    • Recent Topics

    • Multiple Selection/Select All for Approvals

      I have a suggestion from users regarding Approvals. In our environment, our Regional Managers can receive multiple requests for Approval or Rejection. They find it tedious to approve (or reject) each individual record. They would like to have a way to
    • Desk Contact Name > split to First and Last name

      I am new to Zoho and while setting up the Desk and Help Center, I saw that new tickets created or submitted from the Help Center used the Contact Name field. This would create a new Contact but put the person's name in the Last Name field only. The First
    • Last Name / First Name

      Hello , My company adds contacts on a "Last Name , First Name" basis. We've noticed that when viewing accounts there is no " , " (comma). It's VERY misleading. I have set the custom view to show "last name" "first name" instead it joins them both and
    • Grouping payments to match deposits

      Is there a way to group multiple invoice payments together so they match credit card batches and grouped deposits in the bank account? Basically, we are creating invoices for each of our transactions, and applying a payment to each of the invoices. Our payments are either credit cards or checks. We want to be able to group payments together so when our bank account reflects a credit card batch made up of many transactions, or the deposit we took to the bank that has multiple checks from different
    • Post on behalf of employees as well as business socials

      Is there a way to give our sales team access to social to add their own LinkedIn accounts, so that when we schedule business posts, we can also post on behalf of them at the same time so they don't have to repost etc.
    • [Free Webinar] Enhancing your dashboards with JavaScript widgets in Zoho Creator - Creator Tech Connect

      Hello Everyone! We welcome you all to the upcoming free webinar on the Creator Tech Connect Series. The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar that runs for around 45 minutes. It comprises technical sessions in which we delve deep into
    • Quickbooks Online Customer Creation Code

      Hi! I'm looking for code that will automatically create a quickbooks customer account when clicking on a button located directly within Zoho CRM - Contacts Module. Here's what I have and I can't seem to figure it out. xxxxx is our company id which we
    • High cpu load on client side by process sessionaudit.exe

      Hi, as stated above. This happens every time with different clients. Now, the first thing I have to do after making the connection is to go to taskmanager on client computer and kill the process 'sessionaudit.exe' If I don't their cpu is very high and
    • Zoho carbon footprint

      Hi, I am calculating the carbon footprint of my company and would like to include the use of Zoho, because it is core to the company's operations. Do you know the carbon footprint of using Zoho? This for example could be emissions from using Zoho for
    • How Do I Refund a Customer Directly to Their Credit Card?

      Hi, I use books to auto-charge my customers credit card. But when I create a credit note there doesn't seem to be a way to directly refund the amount back to their credit card. Is the only way to refund a credit note by doing it "offline" - or manually-
    • Zoho CRM Appointments and Services

      The Appointments and Services modules are nice but very limited. Is there any chance that Zoho will make these more customizable or expand the fuctionality? Appointments Allow "Appointment For" lookup to the Deals module. For us and I'm guessing others
    • Configuration de la signature de messagerie dans zoho crm

      bonjour, j'essaie d'ajouter une image de signature mais en cliquant sur l'icone image, rien ne se passe. merci de m'aider :)
    • Rebrand your CRM with the all-new custom domain mapping setup

      UPDATES TO THIS FEATURE! 19th Jan, 2024 — Custom domain mapping has been made available for portal users in Zoho One and CRM Plus. 23rd June, 2023 — Custom domain mapping has been made available for all users, in all DCs. Hello everyone! We are elated
    • How to record Staff payment and receipts

      I'm a bit new with zoho so I have few questions its great if anyone here can help I work for a logistic company, every 1-2 months we transfer a lump sum $A to drivers so that they can pay for fuels or they can buy some tools. So my questions are - What
    • Inappropriate Removal of Features

      It's the first with any software where I am experiencing that an existing customer has some of his exiting features removed. Moreover, new Zoho One users are paying less than us. Is this going to be Zoho's "normal behaviour". If so, it is going to be
    • Issue Saving Workflow Rule – "Unable to Process Your Request" Error

      Dear Zoho Recruit Support Team, I am experiencing an issue while trying to integrate a new rule into a workflow. Specifically, I am setting up a Follow-Up workflow for applicants, where a user is assigned based on specific requirements. However, when
    • Chat function not working properly

      Ever since upgrading to plus, the chat is all messed up. it is coming up behind the web page so that I cannot see what I'm typing and cannot read replies. I can only see the bottom of the text box at the bottom of the page, and then it is blocked. I've
    • Analytics report issue

      Hey, does anyone know why suddenly our Analytics report goes blank whenever we add a field from the contacts module? It shows when adding fields from all other modules. Thanks.
    • Zoho One Dashboard is not loading.

      Hi, Is anyone else experiencing a problem with the Zoho One Dashboard not loading? We started seeing the screen below on Friday afternoon and support has not responded regarding the same. Zoho One team, what's going on?
    • User Filter for Dynamic Date Dimensions in Zoho Analytics

      One challenge I frequently encounter is the need to create multiple versions of the same report—one for yearly data, another for quarterly data, another for monthly, and so on. While this works, it leads to unnecessary duplication, making maintenance
    • Remove attachment from ticket

      Hello, When we receive e-mails from our customers, lots of those e-mails contain attachments with sensitive information, which we need to delete from the ticket after using it. It is forbidden for our company to store these attachments, due to security reasons.  Is there a possibility to delete an attachment from a ticket in any way? It is necessary for us that this possibility is available. Thanks in advance, Yorick
    • When converting a lead to an account, the custom mandatory fields in the account are not treated by zoho as mandatory

      In my Account module I have a number of custom fields that I have set as mandatory. When I enter a new customer as a new account they work, I can't save the record without populating them. However when I convert a lead, my CRM users are able to save the
    • [Client Script] How to get selected related record Id

      Hi Zoho, I set an client script button in related record list. We would like to fetch the selected record id/field for further action. But I don't know how to get the selected id. If there is not possible to get related record info, then what does the
    • need help to set up feeds to Zoho books with CRM Perks plugin

      Hi there, I need help setting up feeds with the CRM Perks plugin. It is supposed to send various feeds, like orders, payments, etc., from Woocommerce to Zoho Books. I have been trying so hard but seem to be too thick to get it done :-( For months, I worked
    • Write-Off multiple invoices and tax calculation

      Good evening, I have many invoices which are long overdue and I do not expect them to be paid. I believe I should write them off. I did some tests and I have some questions:  - I cannot find a way to write off several invoices together. How can I do that,
    • Simple Deluge Script

      Hi. I'm brand new to functions but I'm trying to create a script to convert a date field in Meetings to a written format. For example, instead of 02/05/2025 8:00AM, I'd like to convert it to Wednesday, February 5, 8:00 AM. My Date field is the API Name
    • Send emails directly via Cases module

      Greetings all, The ability to send emails from the Cases module, which users have been eagerly anticipating, is now available, just like in the other modules. In Zoho CRM, Cases is a module specifically designed for managing support tickets. If your organization
    • Problem with delivery status in delegate account

      Hello, We have a problem with delivery status in "sent" folder in delegate account. Some messages has no status, some messages has "waiting" status, Some messages are delivered, some messages are delivered wit delay, some are not delivered. Conclusion:
    • Zoho Projects - Custom Objects

      Hello, is there the ability now, or in the near future, to add custom objects to Zoho Projects? The requirement here would be to have the ability to track change requests to a project's budget. The idea here is to have the ability to create a custom Object
    • Create Package From A Picklist

      Dear Zoho, Can it be made possible to create a package from a picklist? The reason our company makes a picklist is for that to become a package Our sales orders have 600-1000 items I hope that makes it clear that it's hard to delete 990 items when we
    • Enable Organization-Wide reCAPTCHA Settings in Zoho Forms

      Hello Zoho Forms Team, We appreciate the existing security options for Zoho Forms, including Google reCAPTCHA v2 (checkbox) and reCAPTCHA v2 (Invisible). However, we have a major usability concern: Current Limitation: Right now, CAPTCHA is a form-specific
    • Store Google reCAPTCHA Site Keys & Secrets in Zoho Forms

      Hello Zoho Forms Team, We appreciate the support for Google reCAPTCHA v2 (checkbox) and reCAPTCHA v2 (Invisible) in Zoho Forms. However, we have a significant usability concern regarding the current implementation. Current Limitation: Every time we want
    • Ho to restrict access to row level to Zoho Analytics users

      Let me explain the scenario we are trying to achieve. We have an online system our team members work with. On it we have 6 users that manage data from different areas (North, South, East and West). We would like to transfer this information to a Zoho
    • Add Support for Google reCAPTCHA v3 in Zoho Forms

      Hello Zoho Forms Team, We appreciate the security measures currently available in Zoho Forms, including Zoho CAPTCHA, Google reCAPTCHA v2 (checkbox), and reCAPTCHA v2 (Invisible). However, we would like to request the addition of support for Google reCAPTCHA
    • Optimize your Knowledge Base for better visibility by allowing search engine crawling and indexing

      All you need to know about no-follow and no-index in KB. What are article crawlability and indexability? Crawlability and indexability are vital for making an article visible and accessible to search engines. When a search engine crawls an article, it
    • Create Dashboard with information pulled from multiple modules?

      I am looking to create an overview dashboard for each account we have within the CRM. This will need to include information from Books, Bookings, Analytics (want to see the graphs). I am new to using Zoho but am trying to help streamline our processes
    • CPQ - Price Rules applying to a prodcuts group

      Hi Zoho Team, In Product configurator is possible to make a rule where you can select "Any product" and set an "aditional condition", thanks to this we can apply a rule to group of products. In case of Price Rules, when I make a Rule for Any product is
    • Subform Zoho Form to Creator

      Hi, I would like to be able to retrieve the values of a Zoho Form subform to create an entry for each in Zoho Creator. To send from Form to Creator, I use Zoho Flow. I have a custom function, which should normally retrieve each field value then create
    • Zoho Creator Upcoming Updates - December 2024

      Hi all, We're excited to be back with the latest updates and developments on the Creator platform. Here's what we're going over this month: Deluge AI assistance Rapid error messages in Deluge editor QR code & barcode generator Expandable RTF and multi
    • Waterfall Chart

      Hello, I would like to create a waterfall chart on Zoho analytics which shows the movement in changes of budget throughout a few months, on a weekly basis. Should look something like the picture below. Does anyone know how to?
    • Next Page