How DNS affects and secures your email traffic

Let’s look at some key DNS components that affect both sending and receiving emails:

1. SPF (Sender Policy Framework): SPF acts as a kind of credential for your outgoing emails. It tells the receiving email providers which servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain. This helps to reduce the chances of your emails being marked as spam and not ending up in your customers’ inbox. SPF prevents malicious parties from sending emails on behalf of your domain. Imagine a customer receives a phishing email supposedly from your company – SPF helps prevent this.

2. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): DKIM adds a digital signature to the header of your outgoing emails. This allows recipients to verify that the email actually came from your domain and was not altered in transit. This increases your customers’ confidence in the emails they receive.

3. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): DMARC is like a regulator for e-mail authentication. It combines SPF and DKIM and provides detailed reports on the delivery of your emails. This allows you to identify and solve problems quickly, increasing the likelihood that your emails will successfully reach your customers.

Understanding these DNS components is crucial to ensuring that your emails are delivered securely and reliably to your customers. By properly configuring SPF, DKIM and DMARC, you increase the chances that your emails will reach your customers’ inboxes and not get lost in the spam folder. So what kind of problems arise?

Common DNS problems in email delivery

DNS errors may occur. This leads to problems with email delivery, such as:

• Failed delivery: DNS errors can cause emails not to arrive at their intended destination because the correct IP addresses cannot be found.
• Spam filtering issues: Improperly configured DNS records can cause legitimate emails to be flagged as spam by spam filters, which may prevent them from reaching recipients’ inboxes.
• Security risks: DNS manipulation can lead to phishing attacks and other forms of cybercrime. Cybercriminals try to trick e-mail traffic and capture sensitive information.

Solutions to DNS problems

For the above reasons, it is important to regularly check the DNS records. And maintain them to ensure they are up-to-date and properly configured. By implementing SPF, DKIM and DMARC, email authentication can be strengthened. This reduces the likelihood of phishing attacks while increasing the reliability of e-mail traffic.

Understanding DNS issues and proactively addressing them is essential to ensuring the reliability, security and effectiveness of email communications within your organization. ALTA-ICT helps you prevent DNS problems. Or solve existing problems. Want to make sure your e-mail settings are optimally configured? Or are you already experiencing problems with email delivery? Contact ALTA-ICT, and we will be happy to help you make your e-mail traffic secure and efficient. Let’s improve your email security together!