Because of its low cost and high return on investment (ROI) rates, sending email messages remains as one of the best practices digital marketers apply. One downside to using this tool is that most phishing attacks take the form of an email message. If you want to protect your brand and customers from hackers, it’s crucial to reject potentially harmful messages.

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) is a groundbreaking email authentication protocol. It boosts security, visibility, and identity — essential components in safeguarding messages. Read on to learn why every email marketer should use it.

What is DMARC?

In 2012, several industry leaders — PayPal, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo — created the DMARC specification to prevent email abuse. These megacorporations wanted to develop a formal standards status for sending and receiving mail.

The companies based their DMARC work on two existing mail authentication systems: Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) to authenticate a legitimate email message. Although they initially developed a mail security protocol, many security experts in the financial industry later adopted it. Since then, more organizations have started using this protocol to improve mail security and deliverability.

To this day, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo still support DMARC. If approved, it can become an open standard accepted by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

A DMARC record — its the core factor of implementation — enables Internet Service Providers (ISPs) prevent malicious practices. Businesses rely on these records to simplify spoofing and phishing detection.

DMARC allows senders to manage emails not authenticated by SPF or DKIM. Options include forwarding messages to spam folders or blocking them. Doing so helps ISPs identify hackers and prevent malicious emails by minimizing false positives.

DMARC authentication is crucial to businesses of all sizes and industries . It prevents individuals from using a domain name without the owner’s permission — an essential step in blocking cybercrime attempts. Implementing DMARC protects the email receiver and sender alike from security threats. Read more about how DMARC impacts your email deliverability.

If done right, DMARC helps any domain owner do the following:

    • Develop guidelines on verifying email messages
    • Determine what to do with messages that fail the email authentication process
    • Decide how to report emails that pretend to come from a company’s domain
    • Provide decision-makers with reliable authentication reports
    • Reduce phishing rates
    • Enable receivers to determine whether emails come from a legitimate domain or not

You can obtain a free DMARC account right now and start enjoying these benefits!

How DMARC Works

DMARC uses Domain Name System (DNS), SPF, and DKIM for email authentication purposes. Here is how DMARC authentication works:

    1. A domain administrator issues a DMARC policy on email authentication and defines what a receiving email server should do if a mail does not pass the check. System administrators should find all necessary information in the domain’s DNS record.
    2. Once an email reaches the mail server, it will use DNS on the domain’s DMARC policies. This process examines these three factors to check the domain’s identity:

Does the DKIM signature pass the DKIM authentication process?

Does the SPF record allow the IP addresses to send messages?

Do the headers follow the correct domain alignment?

    1. The server will then compare the information with the domain’s DMARC policy. The system may accept, flag, or reject the message.
    2. After a decision, the mail server will send its findings to the owner of the domain. When a company adds a DMARC record to its DNS record, it can discover the senders who use its domain. This process allows businesses to prevent dubious individuals from getting in touch with their customers.

With DMARC on your side, you can protect your company from spoofing and phishing attacks that can destroy your reputation. No other system can provide companies with this level of security.

Records

A DMARC record documents DMARC rules. It informs people receiving email messages whenever an organization sets up a DMARC domain. The record holds valuable information, including the preferred policy and DNS entry of the domain owner. Additionally, it’s responsible for informing ISPs like Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo if a domain can use DMARC.

This tool is essential in controlling how individuals use your domain and prevents others from using it without your permission. Systems store a these records as a TXT record labeled _dmarc. Before installing a DMARC record, companies must install SPF and DKIM records first.

Domain Alignment

Another crucial factor is domain alignment, the concept that shows how to verify legitimate mail versus phishing or spoofing ones. This tool focuses on the message’s header to reveal the sender, which SPF and DKIM help identify.

Using the SPF and DKIM standards doesn’t require identities to match headers, and DMARC domain alignment solves this problem. It ensures that the sending domain that created the digital signature and the header match:

    • On the other hand, the return-path and the from domains should match an SPF signature.
    • The alignment can be relaxed or strict, with the latter requiring entire domains to matc. Your DMARC policy reflects the two options.
    • In a DKIM signature, the DKIM d=domain and the from domain should match.

Policies

A DMARC policy informs recipients what to do in case of possible fraudulent email attempts, like to accept, quarantine, or reject them. Below are the three policies:

    • Monitor Policy (p=none): lets emails that don’t pass authentication checks into the recipient’s inbox or other folders.
    • Quarantine Policy (p=quarantine): directs emails that don’t pass the tests to the recipient’s junk or spam folder.
    • Reject Policy (p=reject): blocks emails that don’t pass authentication results from reaching the recipient.

Choosing the reject DMARC policy may seem like the most obvious choice for security purposes; however, it blocks everything it doesn’t recognize. If you forget to whitelist any of your platforms before sending email messages, you could prevent clients from receiving emails from your sending domain.

Before you select the reject policy, check the following channels first:

    • Corporate email system
    • Email marketing and automation platforms
    • Sales or CRM software
    • HR and employee systems

DMARC Reports

Another essential DMARC component, a DMARC report provides the domain owner with information on mail activity. Experts classify DMARC reports into two: forensic and aggregate.

    • Forensic reports come from checked messages. They include copies of potentially fraudulent mail, which the system will relay in an AFRF format. Forensic reports are essential in distinguishing bad websites and domains.
    • Aggregate reports are documents that reveal valuable information about mail that a particular domain seems to send. The data from aggregate reports include message disposition and authentication results.  Keep in mind that humans will need the help of machines to understand an aggregate report.

A DMARC report helps domain owners ensure that their mail goes through the proper authentication process. They also guarantee that IP addresses sending emails are from the domain they claim.

Reading DMARC Aggregate Reports

After publishing a DMARC record, the receiving ISPs will send DMARC reports to the domain owner, containing authentication information on the emails sent on behalf of a domain.

DMARC companies send such reports daily to provide companies with the following details:

    • The domain used to send emails
    • Source IP address
    • Number of emails sent for a particular day
    • SPF and DKIM results
    • DMARC results

Whatever policy you choose, you should receive results daily.

    • If you choose a monitor or none policy, you will receive authentication results in the email address you used for your policy. You will gain access to the email source.
    • With the quarantine policy, you will get the same information in your reports. However, any message that fails DMARC authentication will end up in the trash or spam folder.
    • For the reject policy, the report will include details about emails blocked from landing on inboxes. You should receive forensics reports or failure samples for any message that fails DMARC authentication.

DMARC reports should show which legitimate emails were blocked and help you diagnose those with phishing or spoofing intent. They use an XML format, which administrators deliver to the email address shown in the record. Ien most cases, these reports will require an aggregator service to clean up files and boost readability. Even experts have a hard time reading them manually.

How It Relates to Other Standards

As mentioned, DMARC is not the only mail authentication standard in the market. Before Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo developed it, DKIM, and SPF already existed. Today, these standards work together to elevate the authentication process for domain owners, helping them uncover the email’s origin.

How are these three related to one another?

  • DKIM: To verify whether an email is from your organization or not, you need a digital signature and encryption key. DKIM contains both tools and uses them for authentication. It’s an essential tool that prevents clients from receiving email messages from dubious sources.
  • SPF: On the other hand, the SPF allows domain owners to determine IP addresses that can send users mail from a domain. With SPF, individuals without authorization cannot send mail.

DMARC works like a combination of DKIM and SPF. Domain owners use it to show administrators how they prefer handling mail that doesn’t pass the authentication process. With DMARC, companies no longer have to use DKIM and SPF separately.

Benefits of Using DMARC

Now that you’ve read about Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance, it’s time to learn about its benefits. Let’s go through some of them.

Improve Deliverability

It allows businesses to check whether the emails they send through a domain go through DKIM and SPF. This process lets domain owners fix security issues that can affect email deliverability. You can prevent spoofed emails from reaching your clients.

Boost Security

No system in the market can catch 100% of fraudulent attempts, but DMARC can drastically minimize them by up to 99%. With email authentications, brands can get the best protection against phishing and spoofing attempts.

Improve Visibility

You are provided visibility reports on all outbound mail, including the ones from your company and the third-party providers you use. This tool should help you gain insight into the individuals or groups using your domain to send unauthorized messages.

Enhance Identity

On average, employers receive an average of 121 emails daily. You can help your clients identify your messages even in the most crowded channels. This groundbreaking tool prevents systems from labeling your emails as spam.

Why Companies Need DMARC

In today’s modern world, customer experience is king. Organizations must elevate customer interactions to thrive. According to a Superoffice Article, 92% of consumers will abandon a brand after two or three negative experiences.

DMARC is the gold standard in providing clients with safe email communications with a business. A whopping 90% of all network attacks involve email messages. It  allows domain owners to protect clients from cybercrime attempts like CEO fraud, business email compromise (BEC), phishing, and spoofing.

Using DMARC assures recipients that companies are serious about security by helping them distinguish authentic emails from fake ones. Can you imagine losing the majority of your clients overnight because of a cybercrime threat?

Malicious emails harm organizations and their clients, and DMARC is an essential tool in blocking such attacks. By implementing this authentication, you protect your organization and customers from:

    • Phishing attempts
    • Brand abuse and scams
    • Malware and ransomware attempts
    • Ill-meaning employees who want to use the company domain

DMARC is a crucial tool for all email marketers because it boosts safety, controls email deliverability, and protects your brand reputation.

A recent Security Magazine study reveals that there are now 2,200 cyberattacks daily, with one attempt per second. As mentioned earlier, most hackers target emails. If you’re looking for a way to boost your security while enhancing your customer interactions, we recommend using DMARC. It’s an ideal tool for any organization that sends emails to clients.

If you’re not yet convinced that this authentication is necessary, here are some statistics to prove it.

    • Companies worldwide lose up to $400 billion to hackers annually.
    • A successful phishing attack may cost companies $7.9 million in the US, with a mega breach averaging $350 million. If companies don’t address them immediately, losses could spiral into billions of dollars.
    • BEC scammers target over 400 companies daily.
    • A whopping 33% of companies have fallen victim to CEO fraud emails.
    • Only three percent of employees will report phishing attempts to decision-makers.
    • On average, an employee wastes a little four hours each year on phishing scams.
    • Recent studies reveal that only 23% of Fortune 500 companies use DMARC.

If you don’t use DMARC yet, it’s time to consider this email standard. After all, the biggest ISPs developed it to protect companies and end-users from cybercrime.

Elevate Your Email Deliverability

Since 2010, Mail Monitor has been helping game-changers like TikTok, HSBC, MailChimp, and SoundCloud improve their email deliverability. We found that without the right data, best practices, and tools, even the most skilled teams find such activities challenging.

At MailMonitor, we help businesses of all sizes and industries elevate their email services. With our help, you can gain access to actionable analytics at a fair price. take the first step toward a secure growth journey.

Get Real-Time Alerts with MailMonitor

With our services, you get real-time alerts whenever the system detects any email compromise from your domain. This feature allows you to react as quickly as possible to prevent your clients from falling victim to cybercrime.

Take the first step toward a secure growth journey. We can help you improve deliverability, boost security, get real-time alerts and gain access to actionable anaylitcs at a fair price.