Google has been an early and consistent supporter of email authentication technologies, which help ensure senders are who they say they are, and in turn help to curb spam. Since google launched Gmail in 2004, and supported email-signing standards such as DomainKeys and DomainKeys Identified Mail (which is knows as DKIM) to help validate outbound mail with digital signatures. DKIM validation method is an implementation of public-key cryptography, where the signer attaches a digital signature to the message. The signature is provided via the “DKIM-Signature:” field in the email header and the public key required to validate it is obtained via DNS.
In 2008 google worked with eBay and PayPal to authenticate their mail with DKIM and block all unsigned messages purportedly from those companies destined for Gmail users.
However, since Google Apps account owners use their own domain names, Google’s Gmail signatures are useless for them.
Because of this, the organization has worked on implementing a cost-free solution that lets Google Apps users enable DKIM for their domains and outgoing emails in a few simple steps.
Implementing on-premises DKIM signing solutions can prove costly and complicated to manage because they require complex configurations and even additional servers. Google’s cloud-based solution promises to remove all that hassle.
Starting today, all Google Apps administrators can enable DKIM signing in the “Advanced Tools” tab of the control panel. As more email providers around the world support DKIM signing, spam fighters will have an even more reliable signal to separate unwanted mail from good mail. We’re pleased to let millions more organizations use DKIM with this improvement.
