How DKIM prevents malicious spoofing in Office 365 better than SPF alone

How DKIM prevents malicious spoofing in Office 365 better than SPF alone

Email authentication methods DKIM and SPF offer improved email delivery and security. Let's look at how these two procedures vary from one another.

DKIM DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is an anti-tampering technology that protects the security of your email while in transit. Digital signatures are used by DKIM to verify that an email was sent from a certain domain. DKIM verifies your emails in two ways. The first process takes place on the server that transmits DKIM-signed emails, while the second takes place on the server that validates DKIM signatures on receiving messages. A private and public key pair is used throughout the DKIM process.

SPF SPF is an email authentication mechanism that allows domain owners to define which email servers are allowed to deliver emails from their domain(s). SPF detects fraudulent sender addresses when the email is being sent. Falsified sender claims are detected in the email's envelope, which is used when it bounces. To identify email spoofing, common phishing, and spam tactic, SPF must be used in conjunction with DMARC. DKIM and why it’s better than SPF alone for Office 365 DKIM encrypts a signature within the email header, whereas SPF adds information to the email envelope. When you forward a message, the forwarding server may remove elements of the email message's envelope. DKIM works even when an email message has been forwarded, as demonstrated in the following example since the digital signature remains with the email message because it is part of the email header.

If you had just published an SPF TXT record for your domain in this case, the recipient's mail server may have flagged your email as

spam, resulting in a false-positive result. The use of DKIM in this circumstance decreases the number of false-positive spam reports.

DKIM is considered a significantly stronger type of authentication than SPF since it uses public-key cryptography to authenticate rather than simply verify IP addresses. In your deployment, we propose utilizing both SPF and DKIM, as well as DMARC. Check out EmailAuth’s free DKIM and SPF checker tool if you already have DKIM and SPF configured on your domain.