Importance of DMARC record
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is crucial for any business for several reasons:
Email Security and Spoofing Protection
Phishing attacks and domain spoofing are rampant, leaving domains weak and vulnerable without protection. DMARC prevents cyber attackers from forging domain names, protecting both your brand and your clients. By ensuring that only authorized senders can use your domain, DMARC helps prevent phishing attacks and email spoofing.
Brand Reputation
If your domain is compromised or easily impersonated, your brand’s reputation takes a hit. Enforcing DMARC blocks unauthorized access to your domain name, preventing the risk of impersonation and brand abuse. This helps maintain customer trust and ensures that legitimate emails are recognized.
Email Deliverability
Emails that pass DMARC checks are more likely to be delivered to the recipient’s inbox, improving overall email deliverability. Not adopting DMARC can lead to decreased email deliverability and increased risk of spam complaints.
Compliance and Reporting
DMARC provides reports to domain owners about emails that pass or fail the DMARC checks. These reports help domain owners monitor and improve their email authentication processes. Future compliance with DMARC will be mandatory for bulk email senders to maintain effective communication.
Practical Example
For instance, if you set up a DMARC record for your domain, any email sent from your domain will be checked against the SPF and DKIM records. If the email fails these checks, the receiving server will follow the instructions in your DMARC policy, such as rejecting the email or marking it as spam.
Implementing DMARC, along with SPF and DKIM, is a crucial step in securing your domain and protecting your business from email-based attacks.
Frequently asked questions
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is an email authentication, policy, and reporting protocol. You generate the record syntax and add it to the DNS as a simple TXT Record. A DMARC record lets domain admins announce their policies for unauthorized emails and receive reports on their outgoing email infrastructure.
A DMARC lookup tool shows if the DMARC record exists and reveals existing issues. This helps to ensure that your business domain infrastructure is protected. If the DMARC Record Checker finds any problems, you can always turn to EasyDMARC’s platform and fix anything that hinders your domain-level security.
DMARC reports are key for successful DMARC enforcement (reaching to p=reject). They’re a data goldmine about your outgoing email ecosystem, showing legitimate and unauthorized sources, your email sending volume, and reasons for failing. Using this information, you can put together an action plan for swift DMARC enforcement and, ultimately, compliance.
In short, DMARC is an announcement on a domain’s DNS that states how the receiving servers should deal with emails from unauthorized sending sources. Here’s how it happens.
First, the domain admin implements a DMARC TXT Record in their DNS, mentioning the required and recommended tags like version, policy, and reporting. This sets the rule for receiving servers.
Receiving servers apply this added rule to all the emails from the given domain by reviewing SPF and DKIM authentication and alignment.
If the reporting tags RUA and RUF are in place, the domain administrator will start receiving DMARC reports. The next step is to dig into source alignment, gradually moving to a more strict policy by first implementing quarantine, then rejecting.