Date of analysis: 02/09/2024

The Netherlands DMARC & MTA-STS Adoption Report 2024

The Cybersecurity Assessment Netherlands (CSAN) 2024, prepared by the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV), provides important information on cybersecurity in the Netherlands.

One of the key findings is that the government is creating a centralized cybersecurity organization by merging existing agencies and preparing to implement the NIS2 (European Network and Information Security) Directive. To boost crisis preparedness for attacks such as the one from China on computer networks of the Ministry of Defense, the ISIDOOR IV exercise among other measures has also been conducted.

According to Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security, one of the key findings of the CSAN is that “state actors are intensifying their cyber activities and broadening their capabilities.” He also adds that “The pace and complexity of state cyber campaigns is being stepped up. They are also deploying hacker groups to carry out digital attacks.”

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Key Takeaways

DMARC “reject” adoption is highest in the government sector and lowest in telecom, with low adoption across all sectors.
41.5% of Dutch domains lack a DMARC record, and only 0.9% have valid MTA-STS implementation.
The transport sector lags in SPF and DMARC adoption, while the education sector leads in DMARC and MTA-STS implementation.

37.7% of domains in the Netherlands have DNSSEC enabled.
Enhancing SPF, DMARC, MTA-STS, and DNSSEC implementation can improve email deliverability, domain reputation, and security.
PowerDMARC offers automated, hassle-free solutions to streamline email authentication configuration.

Assessing the Threat Landscape

Sectors Analyzed

Total domains analyzed: 1152

Financial
Media
Government

Transport
Telecommunications

Healthcare
Education

Healthcare

SPF Adoption Analysis

DMARC Adoption Analysis

MTA-STS Adoption Analysis

DNSSEC Adoption Analysis

Comparative Analysis Among Different Sectors

Comparative Analysis of SPF Adoption among Different Sectors in the Netherlands

Comparative Analysis of DMARC Adoption among Different Sectors in the Netherlands

Comparative Analysis of MTA-STS Adoption among Different Sectors in the Netherlands

Comparative Analysis of DNSSEC Adoption among Different Sectors in the Netherlands

DMARC & MTA-STS Adoption Rates: Key Statistics for Holland

70% of Dutch domains have correct SPF records.
41.5% of Dutch domains have no DMARC record.
23.2% of the analyzed domains have their DMARC policies set to “reject.”

21.6% of domains that have DMARC implemented have their policies set to “none” which does not protect against attacks.
Only 0.9% of domains have valid MTA-STS implementation.
37.7% of domains have DNSSEC enabled, leaving 62.3% of domains vulnerable.

Critical Errors Organizations in the Netherlands Are Making

The transport sector has the lowest adoption rate with 52.31% of domains lacking SPF records. The education sector performs best with only 4.7% lacking SPF records.
The education sector has the highest DMARC adoption rate (86.73%) with valid configurations. The transport sector has the lowest adoption for DMARC (35.19%).
The adoption of strict DMARC policies (i.e., “reject”) is relatively low across all sectors. The government sector has the highest adoption rate at 50.6%. The telecom sector has the lowest adoption rate of the DMARC “reject” policy at 14.41%.

MTA-STS adoption is very low across all sectors. The education sector has the highest adoption rate, with 2.04% of domains having valid MTA-STS implementation.
The government sector has the highest adoption rate of DNSSEC at 64.21%. The transport sector has the lowest DNSSEC implementation at 8.80%.

How Can Organizations in Holland Improve Email Security & Deliverability?

Organizations in sectors with lower SPF adoption rates, particularly the transport and telecommunications sectors, should prioritize implementing correct SPF records for their domains in Holland.
Organizations in the Netherlands should focus on correctly implementing DMARC policies, and making a gradual transition toward stricter policy modes like “quarantine” or “reject”. This will improve their defenses against email-based threats like spoofing and phishing over time.
Domain owners in the Netherlands (Holland) should prioritize correctly configuring email authentication protocols. This includes:
- Generating error-free DMARC, SPF, and MTA-STS record syntaxes
- Avoid configuring multiple DMARC and SPF records for a single domain
- Optimizing their SPF records to not exceed the 10 DNS lookup limit
Organizations, especially those in the education and transport sectors, should prioritize enabling DNSSEC to prevent DNS spoofing attacks.
Organizations (especially those in the media sector) should significantly increase efforts to include MTA-STS in their email security stack.

How Can PowerDMARC Help?

PowerDMARC offers full-stack email authentication SaaS services for businesses of different sizes. Our cloud-based platform combines DMARC, SPF, DKIM, BIMI, MTA-STS, and TLS-RPT hosted solutions for easy protocol configuration and management.

We aim to make email authentication & domain security accessible, affordable, and hassle-free for organizations, MSPs, MSSPs, governments, and non-profits worldwide. Thanks to PowerDMARC, phishing attacks, spoofing, and domain abuse will have a lower likelihood of successfully reaching or infecting your domain and data.

Contact us today at [email protected] and effectively boost your deliverability with secure, compliant, and authenticated emails!

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