Let’s talk about DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) which is an email authentication protocol that helps protect against spoofing and phishing attacks.This is a technical standard that is used to protect email senders and receivers from malicious actors who try to disguise themselves as legitimate senders and deceive email recipients into opening malicious emails.
Have you ever received those emails from your work domain name that claim to be a hacker who has a video of you doing something bad? You know the ones who demand an extortion payment of BTC at the end to protect your reputation? Then you need to check out DNSSEC and DMARC.
How does it work?
DMARC works by validating the sender and recipient domains in an email message. It is designed to detect and prevent forged email messages, which are sent from a malicious sender that has spoofed the domain of a legitimate sender. If a message is found to be spoofed, the message is blocked or quarantined by the receiving mail server. This helps protect email recipients from malicious actors, who may try to impersonate legitimate senders and deceive users into opening malicious emails.
“DMARC is an important tool for email senders and receivers alike.“
You have options
With DMARC, email senders can also specify what action should be taken with messages that fail DMARC checks. This includes rejecting the message, quarantining it, or allowing it to be delivered. Email senders can also specify what type of reporting they would like to receive when messages fail DMARC checks. This helps email senders detect and prevent malicious emails from reaching their recipients.
The design of DMARC
The DMARC protocol is based on two existing email authentication standards: SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). SPF is used to verify that the sending domain of the email message is authorized to send emails from the domain. DKIM is used to verify that the email message has not been altered in transit and is coming from the legitimate sender.
By combining the two authentication standards, DMARC provides a more complete and robust email authentication system. It provides a way for email senders to ensure that their messages are not being spoofed or altered by malicious actors. In addition, DMARC also provides email senders with reporting capabilities, which helps them detect and prevent malicious emails from reaching their recipients.
Where do I start?
The service that we use is Postmark by ActiveCampaign, LLC. They are great and offer a free plan as well paid. The paid plan is $10 a month per domain name and it comes with a few extra perks. We recommend you start with the free plan and see if it works for you.
After you signup your domain name with Postmark then you will need to add a new record to your domain name’s DNS settings. Postmark will confirm with you instantly if all is set up correctly. Afterward, you can expect a report every Monday for your domain name’s previous week of email activities.
Conclusion
Overall, DMARC is an important tool for email senders and receivers alike. It helps protect against email spoofing and phishing attacks while providing an additional layer of security for email senders. By using DMARC, email senders can ensure that their messages are coming from legitimate sources and that they are not being tampered with or altered in transit. This helps protect email recipients from malicious actors, who may try to impersonate legitimate senders and deceive users into opening malicious emails.
