A secret message! The fairytale of DKIM

Once upon a time, the brave and handsome king of Rubrum Colatorium decided to send his beautiful and wise queen a message from the battlefield.

With enemies lurking all around, he needed to find a way to make sure no one got his hands on the secret communiqué.

He put his letter in a box, and put a padlock on it, for which only he had the key. When the queen received the box, she put her own padlock on the box as well (for which only she had the key) and sent the box with two locks back. The king took off his lock, and sent the box forth once more. The queen removed her lock, thereby opening the box. The box was always locked in transit, the contents secure.

This is exactly what happens in asymmetric cryptography.

DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) which uses asymmetric cryptography, is one of the underlying technologies used by the DMARC protocol.

If you would like to learn more about DKIM, DMARC, and how they can protect your emails against spoofing, contact us, it’s what we do!

Stay secure!

PUBLISHED BY

tunc

16 Apr. 2019

SHARE ARTICLE:

Categories

Recent Posts

VIEW ALL
ASM

Zoom stops zooming: Why active monitoring is essential

Billy McDiarmid

​On April 16, 2025, Zoom experienced a significant global outage that disrupted video conferencing services and access to its website for thousands of users, as well as their corporate email for all their employees. It was quickly identified as a domain name registration status problem. Despite being a critical name for Zoom, somehow, the…

Read more
DMARC

Why DMARC matters: Protect your organization from evolving phishing threats

Jack Lilley

Phishing campaigns continue to change. Attackers are adapting faster than traditional security tools, using more subtle methods to bypass filters and reach inboxes. The latest KnowBe 4 Phishing Threat Trends Report (2025) shows a steady increase in attacks that slip through email security platforms and a growing use of techniques that avoid detection, increasing…

Read more
News

Red Sift OnDMARC joins the Jisc Chest platform to strengthen email security…

Francesca Rünger-Field

With the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) Mail Check tool having retired its free DMARC reporting service in March 2025, education and research institutions across the UK are now facing a critical visibility gap when it comes to email-based threats. To help address this, Red Sift is now working with Jisc—the UK’s not-for-profit provider…

Read more
News

Microsoft announces new email requirements for bulk senders

Red Sift

Executive Summary: New email authentication rules from Microsoft will impact bulk senders starting May 2025. To protect users from spoofing and phishing, Microsoft will require SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication—bringing its policies in line with Google and Yahoo. Red Sift offers tools to help organizations comply and maintain deliverability. This article: Microsoft has officially…

Read more