Making Email More Secure: Understanding DKIM and SPF

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:
  1. Added the DKIM public key as a TXT record in their DNS settings.
  2. Verified the key using the "Verify" option in Zoho Desk.
  3. 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
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!





      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          • 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 features
          • Share 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 here
          • Webinar 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

          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            Zoho Writer Writer

                            Get Started. Write Away!

                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ




                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • Really want the field "Company" in the activities module!

                                    Hi team! Something we are really missing is able to see the field Company when working in the activities module. We have a lot of tasks and need to see what company it's related to. It's really annoying to not be able to see it.🙈 Thx!
                                  • Upcoming update to Google Drive integration in Zoho Creator

                                    Hello everyone, We're writing to inform you about an upcoming update to how Zoho Creator integrates with Google Drive. In Zoho Creator, during actions like importing files to create an app or attaching files to fields, you can choose files directly from
                                  • Managing Scheduled Replies

                                    Communication is most effective when the intended message reaches the right person at the right time. However, this can be challenging when communication occurs across different time zones. By scheduling replies, businesses can ensure that responses reach
                                  • Show price book list price

                                    When using price books, once you add products to the price book in the Products related list you can display the Unit price which is the default list price; however, there is no option to show the price book list price. To see the price book list price
                                  • Allow Attaching Quartz Recordings to Existing Zoho Support Tickets

                                    Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request an enhancement to how Zoho Quartz recordings integrate with Zoho Support tickets. Current Behavior: At the moment, each Quartz recording automatically creates a new support ticket. However, in many real-world scenarios:
                                  • Can I hide empty Contact fields from view?

                                    Some contacts have a lot of empty fields, others are mostly filled. Is there a way I can hide/show empty fields without changing the actual Layout? I would like to de-clutter my view, and also be able to add information later as I am able. I would be
                                  • Manage user roles and profiles from the Bigin app (iOS and macOS)

                                    Hello everyone! We're happy to announce that you can manage user roles and profiles from the Bigin mobile app. The Users & Controls section has three subsections: Users, Profiles, and Roles. Users Employees who belong to your Bigin organization are called
                                  • Support Bots and Automations in External Channels

                                    Hello Zoho Cliq Team, How are you? We actively use Zoho Cliq for collaboration, including with our external developers. For this purpose, external channels are a key tool since they work seamlessly within the same interface as all of our other channels
                                  • Form to PDF template

                                    I am looking to create a Form and when information is inputted, it will merge it into a PDF template we already have. There could be multiple lines in the form and each line inputs information into a new page of a PDF template.
                                  • Please verify my account

                                    Hi, We have just launched our website and received media coverage in our country. Hundreds of users are signing up for our platform every day. We would like to send them a welcome email, but we are unable to do so because our ZeptoMail account has not
                                  • Subject character limit increase

                                    We have an occasional user case where subject lines exceed 500 characters which is the ZeptoMail imposed limit. While I understand long subject lines are not "best practice", these are particular notification emails with specific information for client
                                  • Account blocked

                                    Yesterday I got my Zeptomail account blocked due to too many hard bounces. My account is used exclusively for sending transactional emails (eg. your order has been shipped, a form has been filled, etc) and the sudden blocking impacted hundreds of websites
                                  • Nested notebooks

                                    Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to know if it is possible to nest notebooks. It would be very helpful when there are too many, as it would improve organization. Thank you for your response. Best regards.
                                  • Cannot see correct DNS config for mail after moving domain to another provider

                                    I have moved my domain from one provider to another and after that zoho mail stopped working (expected). Problem is, zoho mail admin panel still shows (10 hours after move) that all records are correct while I haven't changed anything in my domain DNS
                                  • Proactive Alert for Existing Open Tickets per Contact / Account

                                    Hello Zoho Desk Team, Greetings, and hope you’re doing well. We would like to submit a feature request aimed at improving agent awareness and efficiency when handling tickets in Zoho Desk. Use case When an agent opens a ticket (new or existing), it is
                                  • Ticket resolution field - can you add links, video, and images?

                                    Seems like the ticket resolution fields is just a text field. Any plans to add the ability to add links, images...the same functionality in the problem description box? I would like to send the customer a link to a KB article, a link to our Wiki, embed
                                  • Ticket Resolution - Add rich formatting, screenshots and attachments

                                    The resolution field only allows plain text at the moment. Many of our resolutions involve posting screenshots as evidence, it would be great for us to be able to have rich text formatting, be able to paste screenshots and add attachments in the solution
                                  • Kaizen #140 - Integrating Blog feed scraping service into Zoho CRM Dashboard

                                    Howdy Tech Wizards! Welcome to a fresh week of kaizen. This week, we will look at how to create a dashboard widget that displays the most recent blog post of your preferred products/services, updated daily at a specific time. We will leverage the potential
                                  • Convert Lead Automation Trigger

                                    Currently, there is only a convert lead action available in workflow rules and blueprints. Also, there is a Convert Lead button available but it doesn't trigger any automations. Once the lead is converted to a Contact/Account the dataset that can be fetched
                                  • I'm getting this error when I try to link an email to a deal inside the Zohomail Zoho CRM extension.

                                    When I click "Yes, associate," the system displays an "Oops!! Something went wrong" error message. I have attached a screenshot of the issue for reference.
                                  • Zoho Sheet - Desktop App or Offline

                                    Since Zoho Docs is now available as a desktop app and offline, when is a realistic ETA for Sheet to have the same functionality?I am surprised this was not laucned at the same time as Docs.
                                  • ZOHO add-in issue

                                    I cannot connect ZOHO from my Outlook. I am getting this error.
                                  • Marketing Automation

                                    L.S. Marketing Automation is and has always been part of the Zoho One bundle - according to the information provided on the Zoho Website. Why when I open Marketing Automation do I get the following message?: "Your trial has expired. We hope you enjoyed
                                  • What's New in Zoho Analytics - January 2026

                                    Hello Users! We are starting the year with a strong lineup of updates, marking the beginning of many improvements planned to enhance your analytics experience. Explore the latest improvements built to boost performance, simplify analysis, and help you
                                  • Translation from Chinese (Simplified) to Chinese (Traditional) is not working. It randomly translated. Google Translate accurately but zoho translate is not working at all

                                    Hi friends, The newly added language for translation. https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/ai-tasks/translate.html "zh" - Chinese "zh-CN" - Chinese (Simplified) "zh-TW" - Chinese (Traditional) my original text: 郑这钻 (and it is zh-CN) translated traditional
                                  • The Social Playbook - January edition: Getting started with content creation

                                    Social media isn’t just about posting some random content. It’s about why certain content works, how brands stand out, and what makes people pause mid-scroll. The Social Playbook is a monthly community series where we break all of that down. Through real
                                  • Support for Custom Fonts in Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal

                                    Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to use custom fonts in the Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal. Currently only the default fonts (Roboto, Lato, and Montserrat) are available. While these
                                  • Adding bank details to the contact through API

                                    How to add bank-related information to the contact while creating it using API? The account number needs to be encrypted before sending it through API but not sure how to encrypt and get those values. Please guide me in this.
                                  • Font breakage in Zoho Mail Desktop Lite application for Mac

                                    Dear Zoho Mail and Workplace Community, With the latest update of macOS Sequoia and macOS Tahoe, there has been font breakages in the email preview of Zoho Mail Desktop Lite application for Mac. This breakage is due to the corruption of the System fonts
                                  • Feature request - image resizing on sales orders

                                    I need to be able to show the items on the sales orders, currently the item image shows really small and no way to resize it, need the ability to make the image larger to showcase the product on the pdfs
                                  • Nueva edición de "Ask The Expert" en Español Zoho Community

                                    ¡Hola Comunidad! ¿Te gustaría obtener respuestas en directo sobre Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk u otra solución dentro de nuestro paquete de CX (Experiencia del Cliente? Uno de nuestros expertos estará disponible para responder a todas tus preguntas durante nuestra
                                  • Automation Series: Auto-Notify External Users on Issue Closure

                                    Hello Folks! In Zoho Projects, you can notify external issue reporters via email when an issue is marked as Closed. This helps the users avoid manual follow-ups and keeps the reporter updated. In this post, we’ll walk through a simple setup using a Web
                                  • Turn chat conversations into real action with Integration Blocks in Guided Conversations

                                    When a Guided Conversation fails, it's usually not because the logic is wrong. They fail because the conversation stops moving. A customer starts a chat with a clear goal: report an issue, check a status, or confirm something. At first, the flow does
                                  • Basic Mass Update deluge schedule not working

                                    I'm trying to create a schedule that will 'reset' a single field to 0 every morning - so that another schedule can repopulate with the day's calculation. I thought this would be fairly simple but I can't work out why this is failing : 1) I'm based in
                                  • click to call feature

                                    I've Zoho CRM and in that i want click to call feature.
                                  • Can the Product Image on the Quote Template be enlarged

                                    Hello, I am editing the Quote Template and added ${Products.Product Image} to the line item and the image comes up but it is very tiny. Is there anyway that you can resize this to be larger? Any help would be great! Thanks
                                  • Creating Parent Child relationship in Accounts

                                    We have customers with multiple locations, I setup the HQ as an account, then I setup the different sites marking the HQ as the parent to that location. If I then do a Deal for one of the locations, is there a way to show by looking at the parent account
                                  • Learner transcript Challenges.

                                    Currently i am working on a Learner Transcript app for my employer using Zoho Creator. The app is expected to accept assessment inputs from tutors, go through an approval process and upon call up, displays all assessments associated with a learner in
                                  • Client and Vendor Portal

                                    Some clients like keeping tabs on the developments and hence would like to be notified of the progress. Continuous updates can be tedious and time-consuming. Zoho Sprints has now introduced a Client and Vendor Portal where you can add client users and
                                  • need a packing list feature

                                    In our business, goods listed on an invoice are packed in separate boxes and shipped off. for e.g. an invoice may have 10 items. each item could then be packed in different boxes depending on qty of each item. this packing list is as important as the invoice for purposes of shipping documents.  Request you to add this feature asap.
                                  • Next Page