How do you monitor and analyze the performance and impact of your email authentication standards?

1 What are email authentication standards?

Email authentication standards are methods that use the TCP/IP layers to add information and validation to email messages, such as the sender's domain, the receiver's domain, and the message's integrity. Some of the most common email authentication standards are Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC). These standards use different techniques to authenticate the sender's identity, such as DNS records, digital signatures, and alignment checks. They also provide feedback and reports on the authentication status and actions taken by the receivers.

2 Why do you need email authentication standards?

Email authentication standards help you protect your email domain from being used by malicious actors to send fraudulent or harmful messages to your recipients, which can damage your reputation and deliverability. They also help you ensure that your legitimate messages reach your recipients' inboxes and are not filtered or rejected by their email providers. Email authentication standards also provide you with valuable insights into your email performance and impact, such as how many messages are authenticated, how many are rejected or quarantined, and how many are aligned with your policies and expectations.

3 How do you monitor your email authentication standards?

To monitor your email authentication standards, you need to use the tools and reports that they provide. For example, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all use DNS records to publish and verify your email authentication policies and settings. You can use DNS tools to check and update your DNS records and ensure that they are correct and consistent. You can also use DMARC reports to monitor the authentication status and results of your email messages. DMARC reports are XML files that are sent by the receivers to the email address that you specify in your DMARC record. They contain information such as the number, source, and destination of messages, the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC results, and the actions taken by the receivers.

4 How do you analyze your email authentication standards?

To analyze your email authentication standards, you need to use the data and feedback that they provide to evaluate and improve your email performance and impact. For example, you can use DMARC reports to identify and troubleshoot any issues or errors that affect your email authentication, such as misconfigured DNS records, invalid signatures, or alignment failures. You can also use DMARC reports to measure and optimize your email deliverability and reputation, such as the percentage of messages that are authenticated, the percentage of messages that are aligned with your policies, and the percentage of messages that are rejected or quarantined by the receivers.

5 How do you optimize your email authentication standards?

To optimize your email authentication standards, you need to use the best practices and recommendations that they provide. For example, you can use SPF, DKIM, and DMARC together to create a comprehensive and robust email authentication system that covers all aspects of your email identity and integrity. You can also use DMARC to gradually increase the level of enforcement and compliance that you require from your receivers, from monitoring to quarantine to reject. This will help you reduce the risk of false positives and negative impacts on your legitimate messages, while increasing the protection and trust of your email domain.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?