You Didn’t Know You Needed It
You know what’s worse than an email getting intercepted? Not knowing it happened. That’s where TLS Reporting (a.k.a. TLS-RPT) steps in. It’s basically your email’s protector, telling tales on who’s trying to send you email and whether they’re doing it securely… or sloppily.
It’s the “Read Receipts” of your email security setup, but for servers.
Wait… What’s TLS Again?
Quick refresher: TLS (Transport Layer Security) is the encryption that keeps emails protected while they’re flying through the internet. It’s like the armored truck for your message (if it’s working properly).
But here’s the thing: just because TLS is supported, doesn’t mean it’s used correctly. Or at all. Some servers will try to negotiate encryption. Some will fail. Some won’t even try. And until now, you had zero visibility into that.
Enter TLS Reporting (TLS-RPT)
TLS-RPT gives you visibility. It tells you:
- Who’s trying to send email to you
- Whether those emails used encryption
- If something broke along the way (like a misconfigured server, a failed handshake, or worse)
It’s like a flight recorder for your inbound email. Not flashy, but very handy when you need to know what went wrong.
Why Should I Care?
If you’ve already set up MTA-STS (and if you haven’t, start here), you’re telling the world: “Encrypt email to me, or don’t send it at all.”
TLS Reporting lets you see who’s following the rules and who’s crashing into the wall because their setup is sh*t.
That matters because:
- You’ll know if legit senders are failing to connect. Maybe their server is broken. Maybe your MTA-STS config needs a tweak.
- You’ll spot attackers probing your domain. Creepy? Yes. Useful? Also yes.
- You’ll get data to prove you’re secure. Especially helpful if you work in compliance, IT, or with paranoid customers (you know the ones).
What Does It Look Like in Practice?
TLS-RPT works by having senders email you reports. Machine-readable summaries that tell you what happened when they tried to send mail to your domain.
These reports include:
- Sending IPs
- TLS versions and cipher suites
- Success/failure status
- Any errors (e.g. “Couldn’t validate certificate” or “TLS handshake failed”)
They show up as JSON attachments in email. Which is to say: useful, but not exactly coffee-table reading material.
How Do You Set It Up?
It’s as simple as adding a DNS record:
perlCopyEdit_smtp._tls.yourdomain.com. IN TXT "v=TLSRPTv1; rua=mailto:reports@yourdomain.com"
Boom. Done.
From that moment forward, compliant email providers (like Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft) will start sending you TLS reports whenever they email your domain.
But Who Wants to Read JSON Files All Day?
That’s the catch. TLS-RPT is amazing… if you have a way to process the data.
If you don’t? You’ll end up with a folder full of confusing files that look like they were written by an AI with trust issues.
Let Quinset Powermail Handle It (You Knew This Was Coming)
Here’s the smarter way: let Quinset Powermail collect, parse, and visualize your TLS reports for you.
With Hosted TLS-RPT, you get:
- A simple DNS setup (we give you the record, you copy-paste it)
- A dashboard that turns raw reports into charts and insights
- Alerts if something starts going sideways
No engineering hours. No JSON headaches. Just clear, actionable visibility into your email security.
TL;DR
TLS Reporting = Email visibility.
- See who’s sending to you
- Know if they’re doing it securely
- Spot issues before they become outages
With Quinset Powermail’s Hosted TLS-RPT:
- Setup takes minutes
- Reports become useful, not overwhelming
- Your domain looks way more professional (and secure)
Got MTA-STS but no TLS-RPT? That’s like installing a security camera and never checking the footage. Let’s fix that.
Ready to start? Get in touch and we’ll hook you up.
