Please Note: This is a premium feature. Please contact your account manager to setup.
What is TLS?
TLS stands for Transport Layer Security. It is a cryptographic protocol that is used to provide security and privacy of Internet services like email and web browsing.
How does TLS work for sending email?
Both Vuture (sender) and the recipient's email server (receiver) have to agree to communicate over TLS. Vuture will initiate the TLS communication and if the receiver has the ability to talk over TLS, it will answer with 'yes I can'. Once they have agreed on keys and the algorithm, both Vuture and the recipient's email server will then setup a secure connection between each other for data (email) transmission.
TLS implementation process
1. Please speak to your account manager who can organise the process for changing over to your emails being sent via TLS. Note that there is not an ongoing cost for TLS but there might be a charge for work to move your email queue so it can use TLS.
2. We will need to arrange a date and time for when we can carry out a test for your emails, this will be handled by your account manager.
3. Once an agreed time has been found, we will carry out a live send test which means sending an email from your instance using the server that has TLS enabled for your region. *Please note, currently this is available for the UK and US.
4. We will review the message headers of the sent emails to the test addresses to make sure that the emails have been sent over TLS.
5. You will be informed via your account manager about how the test went.
*Steps 6 to 7 are not required however if you wish to carry them out then please do so:*
6. We advise you to carry out a seperate send to a domain where your recipients are based at, that accepts emails over opportunistic TLS.
7. Please review with your recipient's IT team if emails were sent over TLS.
8. Once the test has been successful, you can then decide if you wish to have your emails routed continually using TLS or to go back to plan text sending.
Pros
TLS encrypts email messages for secure message sending.
TLS maintains the privacy of the message for the intended recipient.
Opportunistic TLS allows messages still to be sent if TLS fails.
Cons
Enforced TLS means if there is an issue when email is being sent, the message will fail and not be sent.
- Enforced TLS requires both the sender and receiver to participate and setup an enforced connection.
- Opportunistic TLS could revert to plain text sending if there is an issue communicating over TLS.
TLS FAQ
1. Does TLS help to improve deliverability?
No, TLS is all about the technical aspect of email sending and encrypting the email and not deliverability, which is about getting the email into the recipient's inbox after the message has been accepted.
2. When will you be able to setup Enforced TLS?
Unfortunately, Enforced TLS is not being used as far as we know for any domains Vuture sends to, Enforced TLS requires much more work from both the sender and receiver to organise and work. This will be on a domain by domain basis.
3. What is cryptography?
A method of communicating in a secret language between 2 servers.
