What is DMARC?

What is DMARC? DMARC is an email authentication system that protects your organization’s domains from spoofing, phishing and other cyber attacks. It builds on the widely deployed email verification techniques, SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail).

What does DMARC Stand for?

DMARC is an acronym for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. As the name suggests, it authenticates emails to confirm whether it meets the verification standards, and also reports on the same.

A brief history of email authentication and DMARC

What is DMARC’s history, when was it established and how did it come into existence? The history of DMARC goes back as far as 2012. At the time, there were no established protocols for authenticating email—so it was pretty much up to each company to determine how best to protect their brands from being spoofed.

As email marketing became more popular with businesses, many companies started using fake email addresses to send out spam marketing pitches or phishing attempts—and this led to a lot of problems for legitimate marketers who were trying to reach their customers.

A draft specification for DMARC was introduced on January 30th, 2012, and maintained since then. In October 2013, GNU Mailman 2.1.16 was released with options to handle posters from a domain with the DMARC policy of p=reject. In April 2014, Yahoo changed its DMARC policy to p=reject.

What is DMARC’s Current State?

We have already covered the history of DMARC, now question is what is DMARC’s current state? In 2015, The DMARC specification was officially implemented by several global organizations and published under RFC 7489.

The good news is that DMARC adoption has been growing steadily—but we’re still not there yet. Less than half of the organizations, globally, have adopted DMARC and fewer still have enforced their DMARC policies. This scenario needs to change at the earliest.

How does DMARC work?

We are now diving into what is DMARC’s mode of operation and how it works.

A message is sent from an authorized server to the DMARC-compliant domain’s SPF record and/or DKIM signature, which are stored at the DNS level. If either check passes, the message is delivered; if both fail, the message is rejected and returned as undeliverable (since it didn’t meet SPF or DKIM requirements).

Once you’ve set up DMARC correctly for your domain, you can enable reports about which emails have been authenticated and which haven’t. This helps you identify suspicious messages so you can take action against them quickly—and keep your subscribers safe!

Why is DMARC Important in Emails?

There are several reasons why your company should use DMARC. Let’s find out what is DMARC doing for the security of your emails and organization:

It increases security by preventing phishing attacks from being sent under your domain name without your knowledge.
It lets you enforce stricter rules for email sending such as requiring authentication on all messages or banning attachments from being sent via email at all unless they’re authenticated first

What are the Benefits of DMARC?

Here are some of the benefits of implementing DMARC:

Email Fraud Prevention
You can prevent phishing attacks by using DMARC to identify spoofed emails and prevent them from being delivered to user inboxes.
Improves Brand Reputation
You can improve your brand reputation by ensuring that only legitimate messages are delivered to recipients’ inboxes.
Minimizes Spam
You can reduce the amount of spam in your customer’s inboxes by preventing fraudulent messages from reaching them in the first place.
Provides Visibility
Quickly identify who is sending emails on your behalf without your knowledge using DMARC reports.
Improves Deliverability
You can improve your email’s deliverability rate by 10% over time by deploying the protocol correctly for your emails.

What is SPF?

Moving on from what is DMARC, SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an email validation technique that allows you to publish a record on the DNS (Domain Name System) specifying the email servers that are allowed to send emails on your behalf.

What is DKIM?

After learning the basics of what is DMARC, we come to the 2 authentication standards that it builds on. DKIM (Domain Key Identified Mail) leverages the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) cryptography scheme to validate an email. The system sending your email signs it with your domain’s Private key and the system receiving your email validates it by looking up and using the Public Key(s) you’ve published on the DNS.

What is DMARC Protecting You Against?

Let’s talk about what is DMARC protecting you against. DMARC, along with Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) work together to secure your inbox from malicious outsiders. SPF creates a record of all the IP addresses that are safe to receive emails from and rejects emails that don’t belong in the list.

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What is Hosted MTA-STS?

Moving on from what is DMARC, SMTP MTA-STS (Mail Transfer Agent Strict Transport Security) is an email security mechanism that notifies senders of your ability to receive emails over TLS secure SMTP connections. It also advises senders on whether or not to deliver the email if a TLS secure SMTP connection cannot be established.

Unlike SPF/DKIM and DMARC, MTA-STS policies are published on an HTTPS server that needs to be set up and maintained. Therefore, we offer Hosted MTA-STS services that can take care of that for you using a few clicks.

What is TLS-RPT?

When combined with MTA-STS, TLS reporting provides you with information on email transported over TLS. The information conveyed within these reports is broken down and displayed in a human-friendly manner on your PowerDMARC dashboard, providing you valuable insights on your email security.

What is BIMI?

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is a new email verification method that allows you to publish a DNS txt record containing information on your brand logo. This allows your logo to be displayed in supported inboxes and provides an authentication mechanism where receivers can compare the logo accompanying your email to that published in your DNS record.

What is DMARC doing for businesses?

Simple, safe email
What is DMARC doing for businesses today: The great thing about DMARC is that it makes dealing with bad email so much easier. With DMARC, it’s easy to keep your data safe. Plus, a less cluttered inbox is never a bad thing!
Email security
What is DMARC doing to offer protection: DMARC offers security in the places you least expect to be attacked – like when your IT department asks you for access to private company servers for ‘routine maintenance’.

Fully automated
What is DMARC providing in terms of automation? DMARC removes the error-prone human element from the equation with a fully automated system that prioritises email security over everything else.
Power take down
What is DMARC providing in terms of actionable measures? The industry has been steadily moving towards securing email with DMARC, and it’s fast becoming a common standard to help identify and block suspicious IPs.

Hope you learned about what is DMARC today! Ready to prevent brand abuse, scams and gain full insight on your email channel?

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What is DMARC?

What does DMARC Stand for?

What is DMARC’s History?

A brief history of email authentication and DMARC

What is DMARC’s Current State?

How does DMARC work?

Why is DMARC Important in Emails?

What are the Benefits of DMARC?

What is SPF?

What is DKIM?

What is DMARC Protecting You Against?

What is Hosted MTA-STS?

What is TLS-RPT?

What is BIMI?

What is DMARC doing for businesses?

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