Cloudflare has two new services, Email Routing and the Email Security DNS Wizard, that are supposed to improve the day-to-day experience of using email without requiring people to immerse themselves in how the system works.
Cloudflare Email Routing
Cloudflare Email Routing is the simpler of the new services. The company describes it as “the most straightforward way to create any number of email addresses that are redirected to the mailbox you, your family, or your team are already using.” Setting it up is supposed to be a two-step process that only requires a registered domain name and an email address.
The first step is entering an email address for the domain name; the second is specifying where messages sent to that address should be forwarded. That way someone could share a throwaway email address with a shady online retailer, for example, and if that retailer starts to spam them, all they have to do is delete that address. Their primary email is untouched.
“Following the same privacy-first approach we use in other products,” Cloudflare says, “we don’t look into, queue, or store emails at any point. Messages are received, handled according to the configured rules, and delivered to their final destinations in real-time.” (Although it’s hard to verify those claims without more information about the underlying system.)
Cloudflare Email Security DNS Wizard
The Cloudflare Email Security DNS Wizard is a bit more complicated. Cloudflare says it created this system to help defend against email spoofing, which sees attackers modifying an email’s headers to make it seem like it was sent from a specific address even though it wasn’t, as well as phishing attacks that are conducted via email.
But the wizard doesn’t introduce new security features. Instead it helps configure the Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) protections that are already part of the Domain Name System (DNS). (Which is Cloudflare’s original school of magic.)
Cloudflare breaks down SPF, DKIM, and DMARC in its announcement, but the main takeaway is that many organizations don’t implement the safeguards for their domains. That’s likely due to a combination of those organizations choosing to prioritize other aspects of their infrastructure and the apparent complexity of getting started with these protections.
The Cloudflare Email Security DNS Wizard is supposed to change that. Cloudflare says that it updated the DNS tab in its dashboard with a new section about email security that walks users through the setup process for SPF, DKIM, or DMARC. Users can also disable email from their domain entirely with a single flick of the wand… er, click of a button.
Cloudflare says that Email Routing is available now in a private beta to which its DNS customers can request access via this form. The Cloudflare Email Security DNS Wizard, meanwhile, is rolling out to free users now and will reach paid users later.
