Use "Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance"
Have you already looked into the DMARC policy? With DMARC, you can protect your brand and readers from phishing and spoofing emails that claim to have been sent on your behalf. It is an open email authentication protocol at the domain level. We have looked at the guidelines for handling incorrectly authenticated emails and summarized the most important information for you.
What is DMARC anyway?
DMARC is the abbreviation for Domain-based jamaica number dataset Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance .
It was developed to curb the misuse of emails, such as phishing and spoofing. Phishing and spoofing are cyberattacks that misuse brand names and domains for criminal purposes. With DMARC, you have the opportunity for the first time to stop these attacks and protect yourself from your sender address being misused for spam emails by specifying how incorrectly authenticated emails should be handled.
DMARC has its origins in the traditional authentication methods SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) . Although both methods are established and widely accepted, they still have some weaknesses. DMARC was therefore created as a public standard for handling incorrectly authenticated emails and some mailbox providers, such as Yahoo or Gmail, technology providers and senders have joined forces to form the DMARC.org working group .
Advantages and Benefits of DMARC
Unlike DKIM, DMARC provides reports for failed authentication checks and gives senders the option of deciding what to do if an email fails the check or is not authenticated. You can use a set of rules to specify whether unauthenticated messages should be deleted, rejected, quarantined or reported. It is particularly advisable to analyze the reports carefully for a while, especially at the beginning, as your own systems often send emails that have not been properly authenticated. These would be treated by the receiving servers in the same way as real spam mailings. Once you are sure that you have identified and corrected all the issues, you can tighten the set of rules.
Tip: Since it is a lot of work to evaluate the DMARC reports manually, it is recommended to use a suitable provider (e.g. dmarcian, mxtoolbox, mimecast).
Senders can therefore clearly specify to providers how they should deal with emails whose sender is apparently known but cannot be correctly authenticated. The prerequisite for this is, of course, that the respective mailbox provider supports the DMARC standard. This is now the case for almost all major providers.
By the way - even if you only have a small company, your domain is not protected from abuse by spammers. In connection with banks or large eCommerce retailers such as Amazon, the recipients are already somewhat sensitized, but with apparently unsuspecting companies, the recipients fall more easily into the trap. The analysis of our own DMARC reports, for example, showed that an incredible 98% of the emails sent with our domain did not come from AGNITAS!
How does DMARC work?
DMARC combines the functions of SPF and DKIM and extends them. Either the domain of the from and envelope address must be identical so that the SPF entry applies to both addresses (the so-called "SPF alignment") or, with DKIM, the signature and sender domain must match (the so-called "DKIM alignment").
The DMARC entry is made in the DNS record of the sender domain and defines for the mailbox provider how to handle emails that use this sender domain but do not pass the SPF or DKIM check (including SPF or DKIM alignment). Such emails are usually spam or phishing emails that pretend to be from a false sender. These emails can still be delivered, quarantined (i.e. in the spam folder) or not delivered at all, according to the definition in the DMARC entry.
In addition, DMARC provides reporting for sender domain owners so that they can determine who is sending unauthorized emails with their domain in the sender.