In today’s digital and interconnected business environment, email plays an indispensable role. Unfortunately, when email protocols were initially developed, security was a secondary concern, allowing unauthorized individuals to send emails on behalf of others. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is a sophisticated email protocol designed to address this issue by ensuring that only authorized sources can send emails on behalf of your organization. Implementing DMARC offers numerous benefits for your organization: it ensures that emails from your colleagues are genuine and not forged by hackers, protects your reputation by preventing the distribution of false or malicious emails to your customers and business partners, and improves the deliverability of your emails into your customers’ inboxes. Additionally, DMARC provides comprehensive visibility into your entire email traffic, enabling you to identify and eliminate vulnerabilities and outdated configurations. By achieving DMARC compliance, your organization not only strengthens its email security but also maintains the reliability and integrity of its business communications. Trust DMARC AI to help you implement DMARC effectively, ensuring your email systems are secure, your reputation is protected, and your communications remain trustworthy and efficient.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) does not introduce a new method for email authentication; instead, it leverages the two existing and well-established email authentication standards, SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). Simply put, DMARC serves as a mechanism to inform all receiving parties that any email messages appearing to come from your organization must be verified using at least one of these two standards (SPF or DKIM). This approach simplifies the implementation of DMARC and helps prevent disruptions in the flow of email traffic. Additionally, the DMARC standard includes a built-in verification system. You can set up a mailbox to receive daily reports from all receiving entities about emails that appear to originate from your organization. These reports provide detailed information on the source of each email and the status of its SPF and DKIM authentication. By analyzing these reports, you can identify which systems are sending emails on behalf of your organization and ensure that SPF and DKIM are correctly configured for each source. Implementing DMARC alongside SPF and DKIM not only strengthens your email security but also provides valuable insights into your email ecosystem, helping you maintain the integrity and reliability of your business communications.
Begin by assessing whether your domain is adequately secured using DMARC AI’s spoof test tool. This tool allows you to verify the DMARC status of your domains and experience email spoofing firsthand.
The next step in your organization’s DMARC journey is DMARC monitoring. Before implementing a strong DMARC policy, it’s crucial to fully understand the nature of your email traffic, including identifying the legitimate email sources that send emails on your behalf and ensuring each source implements DKIM and SPF.
DMARC monitoring provides a comprehensive view of your email traffic without risking any disruption to your communications. Once you have implemented SPF and DKIM for all identified sources through DMARC monitoring, your organization will be ready to enforce a robust DMARC policy, effectively ending ongoing abuse by hackers.
Our research reveals that many organizations enable DMARC monitoring but never take the crucial next step towards full DMARC compliance. Unfortunately, relying solely on monitoring does not significantly enhance your organization’s email security. Here are three key reasons why:
Firstly, the frequency of attacks on medium-sized or larger organizations is so high that these organizations become desensitized to them. Most organizations we have observed face weekly attacks, and some well-known entities are targeted multiple times a day. Secondly, if not all of your organization’s email sources are DKIM and SPF compatible, it becomes extremely challenging to distinguish between legitimate email traffic and malicious attacks. Lastly, the inherent 24-hour delay in DMARC reporting means your organization only becomes aware of attacks after they have already occurred. To truly secure your email infrastructure and protect your reputation, it is essential to move beyond mere monitoring and achieve full DMARC compliance. Trust DMARC AI to guide you through this process, ensuring comprehensive email security and resilience against evolving threats.
There is a common misconception that a robust Secure Email Gateway (SEG) can replace the implementation of DMARC. In reality, Secure Email Gateways and DMARC are complementary solutions that work together to enhance your email security.
While anti-spam solutions typically focus on incoming emails—though some advanced systems also monitor outgoing emails from your organization—a hacker sending an email on your behalf to your clients may bypass your organization’s anti-spam filters. Additionally, even your clients’ anti-spam systems may fail to detect a well-crafted spoof email, as sophisticated spoofing attempts are technically indistinguishable from legitimate business communications, such as calendar invitations or emails from your CRM tool, without DMARC in place. Implementing DMARC ensures that only authorized email sources can send messages on behalf of your domain, effectively preventing spoofed emails from reaching your clients and safeguarding your organization’s reputation. Trust DMARC AI to integrate DMARC with your Secure Email Gateway, providing a comprehensive defense against email-based threats and ensuring the integrity of your business communications.
Kevlarr offers a range of solutions tailored to help your organization achieve full DMARC compliance based on your specific needs.
Our Full-Service Email Security plan takes the hassle out of DMARC analysis by entrusting the process to our team of cybersecurity experts, who regularly monitor your email traffic, identify your email sources, and collaborate closely with your IT department or partners to secure each source swiftly, ensuring DMARC compliance without disrupting your business operations.
For those seeking more advanced oversight, our AI-Driven Advanced Monitoring plan provides access to an intuitive dashboard that assists your security officer or system administrator in analyzing DMARC monitoring data. Leveraging artificial intelligence, this plan filters out unnecessary noise and highlights precisely what requires your attention.
Additionally, our Basic Monitoring subscription, available for free, supports your security experts by collecting and presenting DMARC monitoring data in a user-friendly manner, while leaving the responsibility of analyzing and acting on this data entirely up to the user. Whether you need comprehensive management or straightforward monitoring, DMARC AI has the right solution to enhance your email security and ensure robust DMARC compliance.