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Official third-party software applications commonly send automated emails, such as alerts or workflow notifications to MCCCD employees. Ensuring reliable inbox delivery is essential. The purpose of this article is to clarify the ways that MCCCD email administrators can assist application owners in improving delivery success and how the process has changed in recent years.
While software vendors frequently request that you ask your IT department to "allowlist" or "whitelist" their server IP addresses, this is an outdated practice that introduces security vulnerabilities and risks abrupt delivery failures whenever vendor IP addresses change.
Historically, email systems relied on simple source IP address filtering to verify senders. However, the industry has shifted to rely on domain-based cryptographic authentication standards (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) instead.
Domain-based email authentication standards are better because they:
1. thwart impersonation of the sending address (spoofing) by bad actors
2. protect against messages being tampering with in transit
3. empower the vendor or MCCCD to effectively publish lists of legitimate email servers that are authorized to send email from a particular domain.
The MCCCD email administration team stands ready to help application owners position their application's emails for successful delivery. This includes:
1. evaluating vendor email authentication status and documentation
2. advising about options and domain authentication
3. adding sender addresses to a Safe Senders List in Google Workspace
4. collaborating with MCCCD Domain Name Services (DNS) administrators on the technical details
To learn more about this topic and the options for supporting email authentication, see our full guide for Application Email Delivery and IP Whitelisting/Allowlisting.