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.

More about Guidelines for all senders

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.

Read more about Guidelines for Users Sending 5000 or More Emails Daily

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

  

• Sticky Posts

• Using 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 about

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Recent Topics

• New features and improvements in Desk's integration with Zia powered by GPT 

  Hi everyone, We’re pleased to announce several new enhancements in Zia Powered by GPT integration. These updates bring more customization options, improved response generation, and additional language support. Below is an overview of the enhancements

• Painéis do Zoho CRM ajudam na Gestão Comercial?

  A gestão do departamento comercial é uma questão fundamental para qualquer empresa. Uma boa gestão proporciona previsibilidade, alinhamento e melhores resultados. Acredito que todos que adquirem uma plataforma de CRM buscam uma gestão ágil e eficiente

• Empowered Custom Views: Cross-Module Criteria Now Supported in Zoho CRM

  Hello everyone, We’re excited to introduce cross-module criteria support in custom views! Custom views provide personalized perspectives on your data and that you can save for future use. You can share these views with all users or specific individuals

• How to work with getFieldNames formdata functions ,Any Examples

  I don't find any example showing usage of getFieldNames. Where do i find .is there any Help documents available

• Why don't we have better integration with Mercado Pago or Pagseguro?

  Currently, the integration between Zoho Commerce and Mercado Pago for Brazil is very poor... Since it is old, it does not include the main payment method in Brazil today, which is PIX. Is there a date for this to finally be launched? There are numerous

• How to Bulk-Update Sales Orders in CRM

  Hi - I need to bulk update existing sales orders with dates from our ERP of when the sales orders were created. I made a date field on the Sales Order module where I want to insert that data. I can't Mass Update because I am not updating the fields to

• How to track salesiq on google analytics without GTM

  Hello! We had to move the installation of the SalesIQ widget from GTM to directly do it in our wordpress site. The SalesIQ widget was being blocked by Adblockers which caused a lot of our visitors to not be able to see it. This issue was fixed from deleting

• Feature Request - Improved booking layouts, specifically for individual booking links

  I would like to see more layout options and specifically to have the meeting description beside the calendar booking function, when sharing booking links to specific consultations/meetings. Below is a screenshot from Calendly. I love this layout and it

• Announcing New Features in Trident for macOS (v.1.2.0)

  Hello Community, Trident for macOS has quite a few new features that will improve your business email communication. Let's take a quick look at them. Creating templates Earlier, you could save email drafts as templates in Trident. With the current update,

• Zoho Commerce

  Hi, I have zoho one and use Zoho Books. I am very interested in Zoho Commerce , especially with how all is integrated but have a question. I do not want my store to show prices for customers that are not log in. Is there a way to hide the prices if not

• Products in time entry

  Morning, Is there a way to add the product field to the time entry layout? Giving us the ability to identify a product per time entry. Thanks Rudy

• Zoho.eu and U.S. Cloud Act? Can U.S. request Zoho.eu data?

  Given the current political situation in the U.S. and possible near future implications for data privacy and security, I am curious about Zoho’s obligation to comply with the U.S. cloud act or other U.S. requests for private customer information from

• Zoholics Europe Awards

  We're excited to announce that at this year's Zoholics events across Europe, we're holding customer awards for the first time ever! This is your chance to shout about the amazing things you've created, connected, or achieved with Zoho's developer application!

• Fetching whole month availability via API

  We are currently building a custom calendar component that books directly into our client's Zoho Bookings instance. The challenge we are facing is that your API only allows fetching availability one day at a time, which is problematic. Our second workaround

• Why "balance due" for the VOIDED INVOICE is not zero?

  We wonder why the "balance due" for the VOIDED INVOICE is not zero? For example our case, we issued invoice for a client for MYR1000, then after client request for cancellation. Client haven't make payment yet. So we marked the invoice as void. We think

• Cross module filtering is now supported in CRM

  Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: This enhancement is being released in phases. It is now available in AU, JP, and CN DCs. Help resource: Advanced filters The Cross-module filtering enhancement is now available to all CRM accounts in the following

• Format handling error

  Hi, I'm having an issue when merging a document using a custom function when with decimal numbers. In my template preview, it's seems correct ,but when I do the merge and attach the file to a record, all types of docs aren't displaying the number correctly.

• Archiving Contacts

  How do I archive a list of contacts, or individual contacts?

• Problems with clipboard paste into ticket comments

  Problem as title. Using Chrome get to paste contents of clipboard but submit gives 'you've exceeded the character limit of 30,000 for this comment' irrelevant of actual number of characters. Edge just pastes txt 'undefined' irrelevant of actual contents of clipboard All other areas of Zoho desk work fine with clipboard paste (i.e. new ticket description) it's just comments on existing tickets that seem to have problem. Was all working fine until early yesterday (14th) Client is Windows 10 Pro 1803

• Support Mixed Visibility Settings in Knowledge Base Categories

  Hello Zoho Desk Team, We hope you're all doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request regarding visibility settings in the Knowledge Base module. 🎯 Current Limitation As of today, when a category is set to a specific visibility level (e.g., Public),

• Is there a way to set Document Owner/Sender via the API

  When sending requests for zoho sign, it would seem zoho uses the id of the person that created the zoho api cred to determine the owner_id, is there a way to set a default for this?

• Announcing New Features in Trident for macOS (v.1.20.0)

  Hello everyone! Trident for macOS is here with interesting features and enhancements to elevate your workplace communication and productivity. Let's take a quick look at them. Change the "From" email address easily. When composing or replying to an email,

• we need to add a Customer Number field to the PDF document templates

  Hello everyone. We are currently using Zoho Inventory for our small business operations and have found it to be a valuable tool. However, we’ve encountered a specific requirement: we need to add a Customer Number field to the PDF document templates (such

• Announcing new features in Trident for Windows (v.1.27.6.0)

  Hello Community, Trident for Windows is here with exciting new features to elevate your email communication. Let’s dive into what’s new! View and manage .pst files. A .pst (Personal Storage Table) file is an Outlook Data Storage file format for storing

• Email limit reached

  I'm assessing whether zoho crm will work for our startup, however I tried to send emails to my leads and after 12 emails got the notification that email limit has been reached. That is ridiculously low. Whats wrong and how can you fix that. I am still

• Error in Deluge script, but all should be OK

  I get an error when using the following deluge script (sensitive info changed with ***). This script should parse a projectnumber out of the subject or body text and put it in a custom field of the ticket. The error: Validation failed for the condition

• Importing Into Zoho CRM

  Do you have a list in Excel that you would like to import into Zoho CRM? If your administrator has not restricted your ability to import, the process is fairly easy to accomplish, but understanding the options can make everything go smoother. First you may need to prepare the spreadsheet Remove any extra rows from the top of the spreadsheet, like titles or blank lines. Row 1 should be the column headers. Row 2 should be where the data starts. Make sure that there is a column for any required fields

• Agent working hours

  Hi, I know it is possible to set company business hours but is it possible so that agents can have different ones? I.e. some agents cover later hours on specific weeks - can these be set so those agents that are "working" get notified about tickets etc. 

• Analyze the Name of the Deal Owner and Created by

  I need to display the Name of the User who created a deal and the Deal Owner. Since both fields are lookups to the same table (Users), it defaults to the user record of the Deal Owner and I cannot display the name of who created it. I can generate the

• Date Import Problems

  I'm trying to import products from csv/xls files, but I can't get the Sales Start Date field to import. I know the import is working because all the other information is imported, but the Sales Start Date field is left empty. I think it must be a format

• Canvas and Related lists

  Hi, As much as I like canvas, when adding in a asection with related lists,it doesnt mimic the same functionality as the standard view within the CRM e.g left hand panel will show the module and total number of records. Is there a way of indicating this

• Conditional Layouts On Multi Select Field

  How we can use Conditional Layouts On Multi Select Field field? Please help.

• Zoho Notifications - Received two notifications for one message and none for the other

  We had a client reply to a ticket twice in one minute. The ticket owner received two emails for the second message but none for the first (which was crucial content and unfortunately was therefore missed). I'm assuming this created a race condition -

• New Search Function

  Hey Team, The search function updated in our CRM about a week ago, so I assume it was an automated update across Zoho. It no longer displays leads/deals etc in Chronological order so that the most recently created or updated is the first to display which

• Better integration between Zoho CRM and Zoho Bookings

  I've noticed that when a meeting which was created in Zoho Bookings is updated by a sales person in Zoho CRM, the change is not reflected back into Zoho Bookings. I have raised this with support who advised that meetings created in Bookings need to be

• Offline mode on Android TV app?

  Hello! Is there a way to use Zoho Show offline in the Android TV app? I have an Android TV based projector, and I travel with it, and don't want to have to rely on a steady internet connection when giving a presentation.

• Enhancements to Custom Connectors in Zoho Creator

  Hello everyone, At Zoho Creator, we believe in providing you with the necessary tools to achieve a well connected ecosystem of apps. Our Custom Connectors feature is a testament to this, enabling you to integrate with a wide range of external services

• issues with manually shipping sales orders - advise needed please

  we are new to zoho inventory. we are going to roll the program out to our company within a couple of weeks and during the implementation process we have come into a roadblock with manually packaging and shipping sales orders. its important to note important

• Problem with the "Search" function

  Hi, I've been using Workdrive for a few days and lately, the files I added in Workdrive don't appear in the search. It looks like my latest files aren't indexed. Are you aware of this issue ? 

• Connect Woocommerce new order to zoho books via zoho flow

  Hello i want help to create a flow to create a new sales order from woocommerce to zoho books. Can someone send me step by step flow, functions and fields?

• Next Page