Vade Secure overview and troubleshooting support

Vade Secure is an international email security company that helps protect businesses from cybersecurity threats including spam, phishing, and malware. Global ISPs and enterprises use Vade Secure's AI-based email filter and advanced anti-spam analysis to secure inbound and outbound email. Vade Secure protects over 1.4 billion mailboxes worldwide.

Infrastructure 

Vade Secure is a sophisticated AI-based cybersecurity solution that uses machine learning, heuristics, and behavioral analysis techniques to identify current a new threats. 

It is recommended that any marketer sending email to a Vade Secure customer follow good sending practices to ensure the highest probability of reaching the inbox.

Standard sending best practice guidelines

• Sending Best Practices

Best practice guidelines

• Follow good sending practices to achieve and maintain a high sending reputation. A good IP reputation is key to reaching the inbox.
• Ensure all IPs have a valid PTR (rDNS) record. Forward-confirmed reverse DNS (FCrDNS) is  recommended.
  • What is FCrDNS and what are the requirements?
• Ensure your HELO/EHLO string in the SMTP conversation is a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
• Ensure your sending domain has a valid A and MX record and is configured to receive inbound email.
• Do not use a dynamic IP address to send bulk marketing email.
• Connection and throughput
  • Vade Secure doesn't specify the number of simultaneous connections allowed, but you should always respect their resources and monitor SMTP error codes (421 4.2.1 Connection refused) for signs of throttling.
  • Do not send to more than 100 recipients per message.
    • Vade throttles based on your sending reputation and authentication, so the number of allowed recipients per message may be lower than 100 for some senders.
• Authenticate your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
  • Senders that pass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication and have a good sending reputation are less likely to be throttled.
• Avoid getting blocklisted. Spam complaints and sending to spam traps are common reasons for getting blocklisted.
  • Use opt-in consent methods. Do not purchase email lists or harvest email addresses from websites as they often contain spam traps and can lead to high spam complaints.
  • Have a list hygiene strategy in place to remove unresponsive subscribers before they become spam traps.
  • Sign up for all available complaint feedback loops and suppress any subscriber that complains.
• Immediately suppress unknown users and monitor your unknown user rate. Sending to too many unknown users can cause throttling and sending delays.
• Do not spoof a domain as your email will be perceived as a phishing attack.
• Content
  • Ensure any attachments you send are free from viruses and malware.
  • Store images on your own secure servers with your own domain.
  • Do not obfuscate URLs in your content.
  • Ensure any URLs included in your content do not direct users to websites that host malware.
  • Declaring a MIME text-only content type and not including text in the message will cause messages to be filtered to spam.
  • Do not send email larger than 28MB.
  • Everest users should use Design & Content to identify potential issues prior to deployment.

Troubleshooting guidelines

• Ensure you are following the best practices listed above as they will improve your chances of reaching the inbox.
• Ensure your IPs and domains are not listed on the following blocklists:
  • Validity Blocklist
  • Abusix
  • Vade Threat Network List
    • Your SMTP error code and message will reflect this as a cause.
      • 550 5.7.1 Connection refused - We could not accept your email because your email provider is listed on the Vade Threat Network list.
    • A lookup tool is not available to get more information.
    • If you suspect your blocklisting is a false positive, you can report it using their Sender Tool.
      • We recommend you investigate and fix any potential causes of the blocklisting so you can give that information to Vade Secure should it be requested.
  • Spamhaus
    • Vade Secure doesn't disclose if they use Spamhaus, however, it is a major industry blocklist.
  • If you have an established relationship with a business and you are getting blocked, after checking the blocklists above, contact the business directly to have your email address or IP added to their internal allowlist.
• Check your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication results in Everest using the Authentication-Results header and ensure they all have a pass verdict.
• Check the SMTP bounce messages for clues on why your email is not reaching a recipient. 
  • Error Codes
  • If your IP is being throttled, reduce the number of connections, recipients per message, and volume.