Ping. A new email lands in your customer’s inbox. Excited to find out your latest news, they open it, not realising it’s in fact from a hacker emailing from your domain. Now they – and your organization - have become an unwitting victim of domain spoofing.
Domain spoofing is a very real risk today. Powered by increasingly intelligent AI, such as WormGPT, phishing emails are almost indistinguishable from real emails – meaning your domain could be used to send realistic but malicious content to stakeholders.
The most effective way to avoid domain spoofing is to adhere to email standards and enforce DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance in its long form). However, not only is DMARC often unknown to many smaller businesses, it can be a tricky protocol to roll-out. DMARC requires deep technical expertise, IT leaders and managers are often wary of implementing it directly. Not to do so, however, leaves your organization open to massive risk.
Is your organization vulnerable to domain spoofing?
Yes, every organization can be vulnerable to domain spoofing. The primary measure to prevent this from happening is enforcing a DMARC policy. While email authentication technologies like SPF and DKIM were first implemented over a decade ago, email security continues to be a patchwork effort, as not all organizations have adopted and enforced DMARC - meaning many organizations remain vulnerable to malicious attackers.
What is DMARC?
DMARC is an advanced email security standard which combines existing email authentication standards like SPF and DKIM to create a comprehensive domain protection solution.
DMARC works by telling receiving email servers what action to take on messages which don’t pass SPF, DKIM authentication. There are three possible options for action:
- p=none: Deliver the message in the inbox at your own risk
- p=quarantine: Place the message in spam/junk/quarantine instead of the inbox
- p=reject: reject the message and don’t deliver it to the recipient. Enforcing a DMARC policy (p=reject) is the best practice as monitoring DMARC is just the first step allow to identify which of your systems might be incorrect configured. When moving enforcing (p=reject) without proper care this could result in having your own emails not being delivered impacting business processes
Additionally, DMARC reports are an essential way to identify any potential authentication issues or malicious activity on messages sent from your domain. When monitored and analysed carefully by a team of experts, DMARC reports are an essential means of protection against domain spoofing.
No DMARC, no inbox entry
Not only is the implementation of DMARC an important security issue, but it has recently widened to become a deliverability one to combat spammers. In April 2024, Google and Yahoo changed their sender requirements for bulk email senders, requiring that bulk senders adopt DMARC alongside SPF and DKIM. Those who don’t (who, let’s face it, are much more likely to be spammers), will see their emails simply refused entry from their audience’s inboxes.
DMARC therefore has become table stakes for business.
3 reasons DMARC is an essential part of email security
To sum up, there are three primary reasons why you should be implementing DMARC:
- To defend against domain spoofing.
- To protect your brand reputation and domain name.
- To ensure deliverability of your emails.
If your audience repeatedly receives spam from your organisation, their interest in what you do will gradually falter. They’re less likely to open the next email or stay on your email list. For public sector organizations, such as healthcare or government agencies, spam can have a negative effect on the public’s faith. Worse, if a third party uses your organization name to steal personal information, the consequences can be disastrous.
Setting up and managing DMARC can be challenging. Successfully managing DMARC records include various important yet easily overlooked tasks, such as ensuring that all subdomains (as well as main domains) are brought into DMARC enforcement; using correct DMARC syntax for all DMARC records; and ensuring that SPF records and DKIM keys are regularly managed in all your sender systems - and not misconfigured at the outset. With this complexity some organizations choose not to set-up DMARC fearing impact on their email services.
Zivver’s DMARC service
Zivver supports organizations to successfully and quickly enforce DMARC. Providing insights into misconfigured systems (which could block organizations from setting up the policy, Zivver provides the expertise and information an organization needs to protect their domains with DMARC.
Why turn to Zivver DMARC Service?
Use Zivver’s DMARC service to:
- Benefit from informative delivery reports to identify potential problems with your domains and take recommended actions
- Tackle technical and in-depth topics around SPF, DKIM, DNS with support from a team of experts
- Avert common unintended consequences around email deliverability, often experienced when setting up DMARC without insights
- Monitor deliverability of your email to put your DMARC on a “p=reject” status, thus protecting your email domain against impersonation
Improve email deliverability, ensure that only emails from your domain make it to a recipient’s inbox, and reduce the chances of yours landing in their junk box.
Get in touch to find out more about Zivver DMARC.
