With EmailLabs your data is safe

Nowadays, cybercrime has become a serious matter of concern as we hear a lot about new attacks on companies, institutions and end users every day. In its center of attention we find email communication. The media speak out loud about new problems of well-known brands. And although these institutions have nothing to do with attacks, bad PR remains, and customers lose trust in their favorite companies.

Most common threads
Email communication

Phishing and Spoofing are the two most commonly used methods of fraudulent communication, which purpose is to steal sensitive data from users or to persuade them to take other unfavorable to them actions. It is usually done by sending deceptively similar messages to those we receive from well-known and legitimate brands, often sent from the same or very similar domain or whose email header (mainly sender’s name and email address) have been modified to look more genuine like they come from other source (usually reputable company). Spoofing refers to malicious impersonation of email addresses and is usually used to send spam or during phishing attempts to gain personal or financial information, but also to spread fake news on behalf of a company.

The power of domain authentication

The basis of email communication is domain authentication using SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Do you know what they are responsible for and why they are so important?

SPF

SPF is a standard and absolute minimum protection your business needs. It allows senders to indicate which IP addresses can send emails from their domain. Unfortunately, SPF on its own is not enough to prevent domain name spoofing so the implementation of further email security protocols is necessary.

DKIM

This additional email security standard has been introduced in response to SPF issues. DKIM indicates whether the message sent from the given domain was actually sent by the real sender. This kind of protocol should be a standard requirement for every business to create multiple layers of security together with SPF and DMARC authentication.

DMARC

DMARC is an email authentication protocol that allows you to protect your domain from unauthorized use, including spoofing, phishing, and other malicious attacks. It defines the policy for the mail server when receiving an unauthorized message that has not passed positive SPF and DKIM verification.

TLS

Remember, your emails can be viewed, so make sure you have established an encrypted TLS connection. This security protocol will make it difficult to read the content of messages while they are in transit between your system, the SMTP server, and the email provider.

S/MIME

The certificate, which is also a digital ID issued by one’s Certificate Authority encrypts messages to prevent them from being read by people other than the intended recipients. In desktop email clients/applications, messages signed by SMIME key receive a checkmark or a ribbon icon.

Remember, the lack of proper email security protocols may expose your company and customers to financial and image risks and losses.

Privacy and security

Check out our most frequently asked questions

Do email security affect email deliverability?

The proper configuration of SPF, DKIM and DMARC has a significant impact on email deliverability especially to global mailboxes (Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft). These providers attach a great importance to the safety of their users, giving additional score for messages that come from a well-secured domain.

How to set up SPF record with EmailLabs?

In EmailLabs SPF is enabled by default and it cannot be turned off. We recommend you add the appropriate entry in the TXT type in DNS.

Caution!

To properly set up SPF, add the following entry to the TXT record in DNS settings:

include:_spf.emaillabs.net.pl

How do I configure DKIM record?

Your server settings:

To properly configure DKIM on your custom domain, publish the following record in your DNS settings:

emaillabs._domainkey.domena.pl. CNAME emaillabs._domainkey.emaillabs.net.pl.

where domain.pl is your own domain name.

Some mailbox providers require addresses “emaillabs._domainkey.domena.pl.” and “emaillabs._domainkey.emaillabs.net.pl.” were added without a period at the end of the records.

EmailLabs Panel settings:

In the “your domain” field, enter a domain from which emails will be sent. However, when messages are sent from a larger number of addresses, select the option: ” Dynamic from “FROM” field” then a domain name will be automatically assigned to the sender who performs email sending.

To increase the efficiency of the authorization by external servers, it is recommended to enter the domain yourself in the “your domain” field.

Remember: Make sure you have assigned correct text encoding – base64 or quoted-printable (utf-8 encoding and the same email encoding in 7bit usually makes it difficult to correctly implement the DKIM protocol)

How to set up DMARC?

For help contact our Customer Service Support. Start a live chat, which you will find in the bottom right corner of the screen at http://www.email-labs.local/.

How does EmailLabs cooperate with CloudFlare?

In the case of the CloudFlare sub-processor: we use the WAF service (Web Application Firewall), under which we are provided with Data Localisation Suite (“DLS”), as well as EU Metadata Boundary. DLS is a guarantee that all data processed as part of the service remains within the EEA, while the EU Customer Metadata Boundary option gives us a guarantee that data will not be transferred outside the EU.

All information available to CloudFlare is of an analytical nature only, and all communications transmitted within the CloudFlare service are fully encrypted and can only be accessed by CloudFlare. The purpose of using WAF is to protect our platform as much as possible. Read more about WAF: https://www.cloudflare.com/waf/

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