SPF, or Sender Policy Framework, is an email authentication protocol you can use to authenticate your email.
Email receivers who validate the authenticity of messages will query the DNS records associated with your sending domain to obtain a list of IP addresses you have explicitly authorized as valid sending systems.
SPF is in widespread use, and the standard is managed by the IETF (RFC 7208).
When email is sent from an IP that is not listed in your SPF record by someone who is not authorized to send on your domain’s behalf, SPF allows the receiver to reject it.
Your customer doesn’t receive the email and your reputation and brand stays intact.
SPF helps authenticate email, but there are a few elements of the equation missing even after an email sender has fully deployed SPF.
The limitations of protocols like SPF lead to the development of a complete email authentication solutions — DMARC. The DMARC standard is an overlay that adds three key elements of feedback, policy, and identity alignment to the already deployed SPF and DKIM framework. With DMARC, you always know that the recipient your original email, and it doesn’t require behavioral adjustments from the user.
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