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
Topic Participants
Sumaya Howth
Stéphane LAMBERT
Jeff | Zoho Desk
Sticky Posts
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 emailUsing Agent Email Address as From Address
Currently, while replying to a ticket, it is possible for agents to choose their own email addresses as 'from' addresses. Although we built this just for that little extra flexibility, in hindsight, it hasn't figured much in conventional usage. Almost all businesses prefer that responses to their customers' tickets be sent from the common support/service email address and NOT from those of individual agents. During personal interactions at events, some of you have even made passing mentions aboutEdit 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-importantWebinar 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 serviceCustomize 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
Recent Topics
How can I transfer data from Production to Development environment?
Hi, I am using Creator V6 and would like to bring all the data in production to the Development and Testing environments? Is there an easy way of doing that or I have to export and import each table?New portal SAML authentication error: User not found
Dears, Has anyone else been experiencing this lately? I am creating a new portal authenticated by SAML (Entra ID). I followed the same process as I did with other portals, but any new portal created after this always encounters this error. I’ve been reportingDevis et facture multi page
Bonjour, je suis sur Zoho invoice et je rencontre un problème sur mes devis et factures lorsqu'ils dépassent 1 page. je me retrouve souvent avec des lignes coupées ou le sous total page 1 et le total page 2. j'aimerai savoir s'il existe une possibilitéHelp with Filtering Records, HTML Pages, and Automatic File Uploads in Zoho Creator
Hi Zoho Creator Community, I’m building a Zoho Creator application and need guidance on a few features I’ve been struggling with. I want to implement them safely and efficiently, and I’d appreciate any examples, tips, or best practices. I want users toConvert invoice from zoho to xml with all details
How to convert an Invoice to XML format with all detailsFeature Suggestion for Zoho Websites – Inspired by Squarespace Systems
Dear Zoho Team, I’m a Zoho user and also a Squarespace Platinum Circle member, and I recently noticed the launch of Zoho Websites in India. I wanted to share some ideas for features that could enhance the platform for professional users and agencies.Custom View - Sort by Custom Field
I created a custom field for our Engineering team to know which tickets to work first by numbering them. I created a custom view to general data which includes the Engineering Priority. However, I cannot sort the Engineering Priority column ascendingZoho Indeed Intergation not pulling candidate details
We have recently integrated zoho with indeed. Prior to this our candidates came into the candidates tab via the zoho.resumes email address from indeed and it pulled through the candidates mobile number, and majority of the time a postcode. However sinceCustom View of tickets created today
How can I create a custom view that list all my ticked created in the current date? Currently, if I select the "Created Time" criteria, the "Current Time" option does not work as today. Actually, I don't know how it works this "Current Time".Lifecycle Reports
From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports A lifecycle report captures and visualises the sequential states that a ticket undergoes across its lifespan. For instance, when a customer submits a support ticket for a faulty product,Zoho Forms - Print Button on Forms
Hi Forms team, I'm replicating a form for a client which is currently based on JotForm. I noticed that at the end of the form there is a button to print the completed form. I thought this would be something worth sharing and a nice to have in Zoho Forms.Putting Watermark on Zoho Sheet
Can this be done?Validation function not preventing candidates under 18 or over 30 from submitting the web form
Hello everyone, I’m trying to create a validation rule for the Candidate Webform in Zoho Recruit. I added a custom field called “Date of Birth”, and I want to make sure that candidates cannot submit the form unless their age is between 18 and 30 years.Report to know the history of certain Tickets on Desk
Hi there guys, As the title implies we're wondering if there's any way to get some kind of Report that allows us to check the History of various Tickets at the same time since as of today if we want to know that we have to check them 1 by 1 which is notAdvanced Usage Billing: Prepaid with Drawdown
Picture yourself at your favourite coffee shop, Bean & Brew. You come by every morning for your usual cappuccino, and occasionally you get an extra cold brew and a muffin or two in the afternoon. Interestingly, Bean & Brew has a new idea of offering aZoho Commerce in multiple languages
When will you be able to offer Zoho Commerce in more languages? We sell in multiple markets and want to be able to offer a local version of our webshop. What does the roadmap look like?Urgent Zoho Creator down!!!???
Now my zoho creator faced this issue. Anyone has idea? Urgent!!!The Social Wall: September 2025
Hello everyone, As we step into the fall season, some major updates are on the horizon. Meanwhile, here are the exciting updates we rolled out this September. Approvals in iOS Managing approvals just got more seamless on mobile. With this update, theIntroducing Detailed View for Candidates in Vendor Portal
We’ve added a new Details sub-tab inside the Vendor Portal to help vendors easily view complete candidate information after submission. With this update, vendors can now access all candidate details, from personal information to associated job openings,Zoho One Down
Zoho Team, Checking if when the services up - currently Zoho One is downHow can I track which zoho users are actively using Zoho CRM
I have several licenses of Zoho CRM. We now need to add a new user. I could purchase a new license, but before I do, I would like to see if any of our existing users are not actively using the license assigned to them. How can I determine the activityAccess to Detail View From HTML Snippet
Zoho Creator displays a detail view that slides out from the right onClick of a record in a report. Am I able to access that detail view from an html snippet, e.g. click a record in a list and display the detail view? The zc_LoadIn dialog is a bit clunky,Billing Management: #10 Solving Common Mistakes in Billing
Over the past few weeks, we have explored different facets of billing, from the simplicity of traditional one-time billing to the evolving landscape of subscriptions, retainers, and usage-based models. We've unpacked how billing isn't just about sending【開催間近 - 10/17】東京 ユーザー交流会 Vol.3 参加登録 受付中！(参加無料)
ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 10/17(金)に、東京・新橋で「東京 ユーザー交流会 Vol.3」を開催します！ ZOHOLICSよりも小規模なイベントですので、「リアル開催はちょっと緊張する…」という方も、安心してご参加いただけます✨ 当日は、初公開の事例を2つご紹介予定です！ なお、セッション映像のアーカイブ配信は予定していないため、会場にお越しいただいた方だけが、登壇者へ直接質問したり、リアルな声を聞いたりできる貴重な機会となっています。 ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーLoading CSS Stylesheets into HTML Snippet
Combining html/css into a single snippet can grow quite large for a UI that has a lot of functionality/styling. To keep things tidy, are we able to pull files into an html snippet using a <link> tag? If so, what are some best practices?Notes Attachments
Two things it would be nice to have the attachment size the same as the attachments sections and it would be nice to be able to attach links like you can in the attachments section. Thank youCanvas: empty images
Hello. If I add an image field like contact photo in a Canvas design, and the field is empty, there is an ugly placeholder in its place. This doesn't happen in the standard view. In the standard view, if the contact photo is empty, nothing appears inGoogle enhanced conversions not working
Hi guys, I've connected Zoho CRM through Google Ads interface with the goal to setup the enhanced conversion tracking in Google Ads. I have to Zoho related conversion goals which you can see in the images below: For the conversion goal above I've setupSync Contacts with iPhone
Is syncing the Zoho Personal Mail contacts with the iPhone (or other mobile devices) in the works? I just dumped Yahoo & then found out that contacts sync is missing. Importing is only a stop gap and a step backwards for me.MS Teams Meeting to Zoho CRM
Has anyone figured out a good way to push MS Teams meeting info on a trigger of "meeting end" to Zoho CRM? We're looking for a way to take attendees of a meeting and meeting duration and push it into Zoho CRM after the meeting has ended. If I can justHow do I move a section or element from one page to another in the NEW Zoho Sites UI
I have a section on my home page with numerous elements within it and I'd like to move the entire section to a different page on my site so I don't have to recreate it from scratch. Is there a way for me to do that easily? I could use a quick answer on this please.Zoho Projects app update: Global Web Tabs support
Hello everyone! In the latest version(v3.10.10) of the Zoho Projects app update, we have brought in support for Global Web Tabs. You can now access the web tabs across all the projects from the Home module of the app. Please update the app to the latestExport as MP4 or GIF
Hi, Just wondering if there's a way to export/convert a presentation to an MP4 video file or even a GIF. One use case would be to use the animation functionality to create social media graphics/charts/gifs/videos. Thanks for a great tool... Rgds JonPage Layout- Horizontal Rule
When editing the layout of, for instance, the Potentials page, is there a way to insert a horizontal rule or white space in between fields? I'd like to keep a group of fields in the same Section, but would like to create some seperation in order to further group together certain fields within the Section. If this is not possible, does anybody have any other suggestions on how to create this same effect? Thank you!Zoho Books will discontinue support for older browser versions soon
Hello users, Starting from May 15, 2024, Zoho Books will no longer support the following browser versions: Browsers Version Restrictions Firefox Browser Versions older than 100 Google Chrome Versions older than 100 Microsoft Edge Versions older than 100Zoho Projects - Q3 Updates | 2025
Hello Users, The final quarter of the year 2025 has begun, and we at Zoho Projects are all set with a plan. New targets to achieve and new milestones to reach, influenced by the lasting imprint of the past quarter. 2025's Q3 saw some new features andZoho Sheet - Printing - Page Breaks and Printing Customization
I think the title is descriptive enough in that I cannot find help documentation on a simple task of adding in page brakes for separating pages on print. ThanksIssue with Trident exe file
Hello Team, Exe Setup file It's showing harmful for user pc please check and do needful. this message for developer team. Thanks Bhargav PurohitDifferent languages for users
Hello, Do you plan to enable individual users to select their languages for interface? Currently language can be changed for everyone - it looks like a settings for a whole portal, which is not good when you are working internationally. Best regards,Transaction Locking with the dynamic date
Is it possible to dynamically update dates on transaction locking. We want to lock transaction x days from todayNext Page