CPanel Email Security
Introduction
Few things frustrate website owners more than seeing their emails end up in recipients’ spam folders, or discovering that attackers are exploiting their domain to send fraudulent messages. Happily, cPanel offers ready-made tools to protect your email and prove it is genuine, chiefly SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, along with the SpamAssassin anti-spam tool. Here is what each one does and how to enable it correctly.
CPanel Email Security
SPF: Who May Send in Your Name?
An SPF record is a DNS record that specifies which servers are permitted to send messages on behalf of your domain. When a message arrives, the recipient’s server checks whether the sending server is included in your SPF record, and if it is not, the message may be marked as suspicious.
How to enable it in cPanel:
- Go to Email, then Email Deliverability.
- Find your domain and click Manage, or Repair if the record is incomplete.
- cPanel will propose a valid SPF record that is ready to add to your DNS zone.
DKIM: A Digital Signature on Every Message
DKIM adds an encrypted digital signature to each message leaving your domain, allowing the recipient’s server to verify that the content was not altered in transit and that it truly came from your domain.
How to enable it in cPanel:
It is usually enabled automatically when the domain is created, and you can view its status and record from the same Email Deliverability page.
DMARC: The Deciding Word on Suspicious Mail
DMARC works on top of both SPF and DKIM, telling receiving servers what to do with messages that fail the checks (reject, quarantine as spam, or allow through), and it also sends you regular reports on any attempt to spoof your domain.
How to enable it:
On the same Email Deliverability page, check whether a DMARC record exists. If it does not, add one manually through Zone Editor in a format like this:
v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com
Fighting Spam with SpamAssassin
cPanel includes the SpamAssassin tool for filtering suspicious incoming mail:
- Go to Email and choose Spam Filters.
- Turn on Enable Spam Filters.
- Set the sensitivity score to suit your needs; the lower the value, the stricter the filtering.
- You can send flagged messages straight to a Spam folder instead of the inbox.
Additional Protection Tips
- Use strong, complex passwords, and enable two-step verification whenever your mail program supports it.
- Review the Email Deliverability log regularly to confirm your settings are sound.
- Never share your mailbox login details with anyone you do not trust.
- Keep the mail apps on your devices updated to close any security holes.
Frequently Asked Questions
They are not technically mandatory, but today they are almost essential for getting your messages into the inbox rather than spam, especially as Gmail and Outlook tighten their checks.
Through the Email Deliverability page in cPanel, which shows the status of each record along with suggestions for fixing any problem.
SPF verifies that the sending server is authorized to send for the domain, while DKIM verifies the integrity of the message content through a digital signature.
It is better to begin with “none” or “quarantine” to observe the results, and move to “reject” later so legitimate messages are not turned away by mistake.
No. It simply marks them or moves them to the spam folder, and it only deletes them if you configure it that way yourself.
Content
- Introduction
- SPF: Who May Send in Your Name?
- DKIM: A Digital Signature on Every Message
- DMARC: The Deciding Word on Suspicious Mail
- Fighting Spam with SpamAssassin
- Additional Protection Tips
- Frequently Asked Questions
