What is SPF?

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email authentication protocol that domain owners use to specify the email servers they send email from, making it harder for fraudsters to spoof sender information.

The Protection of SPF

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. 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 email protection allows the receiver to reject it.

Your customer doesn’t receive the email and your reputation and brand stays intact.

Lookup your SPF record >

Limitations of SPF

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Learn the limitation of DKIM

SPF helps authenticate email, but there are a few elements of the equation missing even after an email sender has fully deployed SPF.

  • There is no way for a recipient system to know how much reliance they should put on the SPF results for any given email.
  • SPF provides no way for email receivers to provide any feedback to the email senders.
  • SPF authenticates email domains that are buried deep in the message headers and not easily visible to a typical end user.

DMARC Email Authentication

Together, SPF and DKIM provide an important framework to fight spam and ensure the integrity of the email. DMARC acts as an overlay on this framework and adds three key elements:

  1. Identity alignment: enables senders to specify how their email messages are authenticated and to make sure the end user receives the original email.
  2. Policy management: enables senders to determine how to check the “From” field presented to a user and what to do upon failure
  3. Reporting: provides senders an understanding of the actions performed under that policy

DMARC is the only way for email senders to tell email recipients that emails they are sending are truly from them.

Learn more about DMARC >

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Get started with DMARC Email Authentication

Get Started with DMARC

Cybercriminals can use almost any brand or email domain to send spam, phishing emails, and malware installs. DMARC allows companies to prevent malicious ones from getting to consumers inbox. Learn how protect your organization with our "Getting Started with DMARC" guide.