Can a DKIM record stop email attacks?
Email is the #1 vector for cyberattacks today. Attackers can easily spoof an email address, sending messages that appear to come from a trusted source. As a result, authentication techniques like DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) have been developed to provide better verification that an email and its sender are valid.
With DKIM, a sender signs an email with a cryptographic signature that verifies the email comes from a legitimate source and that it was not altered during transit. A receiving mail server validates the DKIM signature by using the public key found in the domain's DKIM record, part of its DNS record. Senders can maintain multiple DKIM records for various sending sources.
Using a DKIM record will likely improve email delivery, ensuring that fewer messages end up in junk or spam folders. But DKIM signatures and DKIM records on their own can't prevent all forms of spam and attacks, as the protocol does nothing to prevent attackers from spoofing the visible "from" part of the email header – the information that recipients see.
The DMARC protocol (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) builds on DKIM as well as SPF (Sender Policy Framework) to significantly improve email security. But implementing DMARC can be complicated and time-consuming without an expert guide. That's where Mimecast can help.
