What information does SPF (Sender Policy Framework) provide?

SPF, or Sender Policy Framework, is a crucial email authentication method that helps verify the identity of the email sender. It achieves this by allowing the owner of a domain to specify which mail servers are authorized to send emails on its behalf. This is done through DNS (Domain Name System) records that list the IP addresses of legitimate servers. When an email is received, the recipient's mail server checks the SPF record of the sender's domain to determine whether the email comes from an authorized IP address. If the sending server is not listed as authorized, the email may be flagged or rejected as potentially fraudulent or spoofed.

This mechanism significantly enhances email security by helping to prevent email spoofing—one of the common tactics used in phishing attacks—ensuring that recipients can trust the origin of the emails they receive. By verifying the authenticity of the sender's identity, SPF helps protect against domain impersonation and enhances the overall integrity of email communications.

The other options, while related to email security and management, do not accurately describe the primary function of SPF:

• Encryption of email content is managed through different mechanisms, such as TLS (Transport Layer Security).

• Tracking recipient engagement is typically done through analytics tools that monitor user interaction with emails, rather than through