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

• 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

• Invoice status on write-off is "Paid" - how do I change this to "Written off"

  HI guys, I want to write off a couple of outstanding invoices, but when I do this, the status of the invoices shows as "Paid". Clearly this is not the case and I need to be able to see that they are written off in the customer's history. Is there a way

• For each loop with available time slots

  I am very new to Deluge, and this question was unable to be answered by Zoho Creator tech support upon request. Task at hand: I have a Form with 4 fields: - Date Start - Date End - Dropdown: Time Start: contains time slots (12:00PM, 12:15PM, etc) - Dropdown:

• Change script to add fields

  Hi, I have a custom function (writen by a different implementation company in the beginning) which I would like to edit to add a different field as well. Can't get it to work on my own though. - The script now adds the address fields to a new quote (needs

• Can we have Backorder Management ?

  Can we have Backorder Management ?

• Converting Amazon Sales Order to Invoice

  Hi there, We need  advice on the Amazon integration with Zoho Inventory. Now, we want to convert all the Sales orders synced from Amazon to Invoices. We want also to include and record the Amazon fees associated with the sales (Amazon fees, FBA fees, Cost of Advertising etc.) However, Sales order only captures the sales proceeds (Gross Sales) in Zoho Inventory. Does anyone currently work with Amazon and can suggest how to correctly process the sales and Amazon payments through Zoho Inventory and

• Zoho Inventory | Can't uncheck/turn off Advance Tracking

  Hi, I wanted to know if there's a way to turn off Advanced Tracking (such as Serial Number or Batch Tracking) for an item in Zoho Inventory. I’ve read that you might need to delete associated transactions and clear the opening stock to disable these features.

• No Hope for Zoho Meeting

  Zoho Meeting is just the poorest meeting app I've come across in a long time. The support sucks too. I called to see if there was anything that could be done on the backend and while I was on a test meeting with support the video was lagging and freezing

• Landed Cost application to Vendor Bills from dropship Purchase Orders

  When trying to apply a Landed Cost to a Vendor Bill generated from a dropship Purchase Order, the Landed Cost pop-up window generates a message that "Landed Cost cannot be applied to Bills from dropship Purchase Orders" when trying to save the landed

• Condition-based data sharing rules are now available in CRM

  Dear All,   We are excited to introduce a much awaited feature: condition-based data sharing rules. We'd love to explain more about this enhancement.   Specify record conditions in data sharing rules Data sharing rules enable you to share all the CRM

• 2 serial numbers for 1 item (Mac address and Serial number)

  There is a way to track 2 serial number type for 1 Item. Ex: Some electronic devices have a MAC address and a serial number. I need to track those 2 numbers

• Zoho Projects Roadshow, USA - 2024

  Dear Users, We are happy to announce the Zoho Projects Roadshows 2024 in USA. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about Zoho Projects and gain in-depth knowledge of the advanced features. Our team will also discuss industry specific solutions

• [Zoho Writer Webinar] Tips on collaboration control in Writer

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for the month of October 2023: Tips on collaboration control in Writer. This webinar will help you understand the various features available in Writer to control collaboration. We'll

• [Zoho Writer Webinar] Working with tables in Zoho Writer

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for the month of September 2023: Working with tables. This webinar will help you understand the various ways you can use tables to meet your specific needs. The webinar will take

• [Zoho Writer Webinar] Customize Writer to suit your business process

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for the month of August 2023: Customize Writer to suit your business process. This webinar will cover the various ways to customize Writer to streamline business processes and improve

• Why is Zoho Meeting quality so poor?

  I've just moved from Office 365 to Zoho Workplace and have been generally really positive about the new platform -- nicely integrated, nice GUI, good and easy-to-understand control and customisation, and at a reasonable price. However, what is going on

• Is there a way to print the dashboard?

  I would like the capability of printing the dashboard - is that possible?

• Workflows for Timesheet

  Good day, Any way to have timesheet as triggers? I looked into Zoho Flow and into Zoho Project automation but no where can I have timesheet as a trigger. Basically, I would like to trigger something upon timesheet approval. Right now, the only way to

• Linkedin - Recruiter System Connect

  Hi there! Does anyone here know how to connect Zoho Recruit to Linkedin Recruiter via Recruiter System Connect?

• [Webinar] A recap of Zoho Writer in 2024

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce Zoho Writer's webinar for December 2024: A recap of Zoho Writer in 2024. This webinar will provide a recap of the features, enhancements, and integrations released in 2024 to enhance your productivity. There

• Learn how to automate IT asset and incident management with Zoho Writer

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for November 2024: Learn how to use Zoho Writer's fillable forms for IT asset and incident management. This webinar will focus on how Zoho Writer can help you automate your organization's

• [Webinar] Learn how Zoho Writer can streamline your finance and admin operations

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for October 2024: Streamlining finance and admin operations with Zoho Writer. This webinar will focus on how Zoho Writer can help you generate payslips and automate claim processes.

• [Zoho Writer Webinar] Learn how Zoho Writer can enhance the productivity of sales teams

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for August 2024: Streamlining sales operations with Zoho Writer. This webinar will focus on how Zoho Writer can help you create sales documents and automate sales routines. There

• [Zoho Writer Webinar] Learn how to simplify your HR operations: Part 2

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for July 2024: Learn how Zoho Writer can simplify your HR operations: Part 2. This webinar will focus on how Zoho Writer can help HR teams streamline and automate their entire hiring

• [Zoho Writer Webinar] Learn how to simplify your day-to-day HR operations

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for June 2024: Learn how Zoho Writer can simplify your day-to-day HR operations. This webinar will focus on how to automate your entire hiring process and generate various types of

• [Zoho Writer Webinar] Use formulas and conditions in Zoho Writer's document automation

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for May 2024: Learn how to use formulas and conditions in Zoho Writer. This webinar will focus on how to use formulas and conditions when automating document generation in Zoho Writer.

• [Zoho Writer Webinar] Personalize Zoho Writer to suit your needs

  Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for April 2024: Learn how to personalize Zoho Writer to suit your needs. This webinar will focus on how to easily customize Writer's features at the user and organization level for

• How to refresh/update module fields in

  Hi, I created a Workspace for CRM years ago. Since that time I've updated the layouts in several modules in CRM but Zoho Analytics displays the previous state fields only. How to refresh the module fields to reflect the actual state in Analytics? BR

• Data update/pull from a specific field or module

  Hi Team, Currently, if I need a data from a newly added field on a product like Zoho CRM, I need to refresh the whole module to get the new field. This is taking much time for the data to be visible. If the data pull/refresh can be granularized to fetch

• Lookup field in User module cannot look up to custom modules!

  Hi there, Expense has been great so far but it's sad to see that a simple thing such as allowing a lookup to custom modules from the Users module is not yet implemented. Hope to see this in the next release. Do you have any plan for that?

• Trigger Zoho Cliq Channel Workflows for API Messages

  Dear Zoho Cliq Team, I hope this message finds you well. We have noticed that reminders or messages posted to Zoho Cliq channels via the API do not trigger channel-based workflows. This limitation means that any bot configured with a participation handler

• Webhook Trigger for New Messages in Cliq Channels

  Hello, I would like to request a feature to enable webhook triggers when a new message is added to a Cliq channel. This functionality would allow us to seamlessly send important information from Cliq to other relevant systems. This webhook trigger can

• Ability to Edit the "Current Job Title" dropdown field

  Current experience/Issue: When a user (candidate) uploads resume to Zoho Recruit candidate portal, some fields are prefilled with the info from the resume/cv correctly. However, we've observed that; 1. the "Current Job Title" dropdown field is usually

• I'm getting an "Invalid_scope" error, even though I used an access token generated with the correct scope.

  I'm getting an "Invalid_scope" error, even though I used an access token generated with the correct scope. Here’s what I did in Postman: Generated the code to create an access token using the following URL: https://accounts.zoho.eu/oauth/v2/auth?scope=ZohoCampaigns.contact.UPDATE&client_id=<client_id>&response_type=code&access_type=offline&redirect_uri=https://1882-2-26-193-161.ngrok-free.app

• Problem viewing document imported from google drive.

  Hello, When I add a document via my google drive, it is impossible to preview it. I get the error “Files without extensions cannot be previewed. Download to view this file”. Could you please help me? Also, and this is more of a question: is there a way

• Adding Bluesky channel

  Hello, Is Bluesky (AT protocol) soon added on Social ? Bluesky is being developped and is now open to anyone (no more invitation) Thank you

• Problem configuring/customizing sales pipeline steps

  Hello, I have created several sales pipelines with different stages in them. Unfortunately I forgot to properly configure these steps (conversion probability, forecast category). How can I modify and customize all these steps? Thnak you by advance M

• Clear String field based on the value of other field

  Hello everyone, We would like to be able to clear a string field (delete whatever has been written and make it empty) when another field (picklist) is changed to a specific value. While I can empty other types of fields, I noticed that I can't do this

• How Can i put a form in Zobot

  Hi,how can i integrate a form which has a multiple options to choose from.the form should be opened or displayed by zobot after it meets a requirement in the conversation. Thanks in advance !

• workflow for bounced email gets triggered, but email is status = opened

  Hello, I have a workflow that sends me an email if outgoing email are bounced. Now I got some kind of this emails, but the corrosponding contacts have status = open at the email. Why this bounce-workflow is triggered? Reports > Email Reports > Bounce

• Power of Automation :: Automatically start / pause / stop timer on task status update.

  Hello Everyone, A Custom function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:-

• Next Page