What is DMARC?
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance) is an email validation system that companies use to protect their company’s email domain from being used for phishing scams and other cybercrimes. DMARC leverages the existing email authentication techniques SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail). When a domain owner publishes a DMARC record into their DNS, they’ll gain insight in who’s sending email on behalf of their domain. DMARC is an email validation system designed to protect your company’s email domain from being used for email spoofing, phishing scams and other cybercrimes.
Using a combination of the existing SPF and DKIM email protocols, DMARC adds a third layer of security by letting you know when an email coming from your domain was not actually sent by you. This information can be used to get detailed information about the email channel. With this information a domain owner can get control over the email sent on his behalf. You can use DMARC to protect your domains against abuse in phishing or spoofing attacks. Securing your email with DMARC gives email receivers certainty whether an email is legit and has originated from you. This results in a positive impact on email delivery and also prevents others from sending email using your domain.
This page covers everything you need to know about DMARC:
· What is DMARC?
· History of DMARC
· Why DMARC?
· Where does DMARC help?
· DMARC in practice
· Mitigate the impact of spoofing with DMARC
· Misunderstandings about DMARC
· User-friendly DMARC analyzing software
History of DMARC
The DMARC standard was first published in 2012 to prevent email abuse. Several industry leaders have worked together to create the DMARC specification, DMARC was created by PayPal together with Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! These industry leaders came together to develop an operational specification, with the desire that it would be able to achieve formal standards status. They created the DMARC standard based on the existing email authentication techniques SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail). DMARC was developed by PayPal with Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! to improve protection of email domains.
The idea behind DMARC was to provide a common framework for email senders and receivers to use when evaluating the authenticity of an email, enabling domain owners to publish their email authentication practices in a machine readable format. This allows domain owners additional visibility into how their messages are being handled as well as protection from email abuse. DMARC originally started as an email security protocol.
At first the protocol was mostly adopted by security experts in the financial industry. Over the course of time DMARC has become more and more recognized by email marketeers for its role in improved deliverability and overall security. More and more companies are implementing DMARC policies in their setup to get rid of phishing attacks effectively.
Why DMARC?
The email channel is often used to send emails that seem to come from your company name. The goal of these messages is to get recipients to respond or take a certain action by clicking on a link, opening an attachment, or transferring money. This can result in serious damage to your reputation and financial loss. With our DMARC solution, you can totally secure your organization against cybercrime. The email channel is one of the most important channels for many companies. Think of customer service, sales and invoicing, but also for attackers. It is a weak point where data theft occurs. The best way to prevent this is by implementing DMARC.
