Safeguarding your email with DMARC authentication in line with upcoming compliance changes

Protecting your brand is of utmost importance when sending customers’ outbound emails. Unfortunately, once the messages leave your domain, hackers often have a field day by turning your friendly correspondences into malicious domain phishing, spam or spoofing campaigns. This, in turn, can damage your reputation and put your company at risk of security breach and financial loss by trick company employees, customers, or partners into sending sensitive information or transferring funds.

What is DMARC authentication?

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) is an email standard that was established to block domain spoofing. More specifically, it:

• confirms the sender’s identity using Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
• tells the recipient’s email service what to do with emails that fail the check
• asks recipient email services to provide reports of where email comes from

Why DMARC authentication is important

DMARC authentication is now mandatory for public organisation in the UK as well as other countries such as the US and Germany.

Furthermore, Google and Yahoo recently announced that from February 2024, strict rules on electronic security will be imposed for companies sending more than 5,000 electronic messages via or to these platforms requiring them to adopt DMARC authentication technology.

This initiative, soon to be followed by other market leaders, marks a crucial step in the fight against electronic fraud, forcing companies to strengthen their security and adopt more stringent email management practices.

This announcement will also lead to an acceleration in the adoption of DMARC, which will soon make it difficult for non-compliant companies to deliver their e-mails.

Implication for businesses from February 2024

Businesses cannot ignore the implications of Google and Yahoo recent announcement since not complying could result in the outright rejection of emails by these platforms and would create significant barriers to communication with customers, partners and suppliers.

However, This is an  opportunity to strengthen and optimise their email security by adopting DMARC so they can, not meet the standards demanded by these technology giants, but also establish a new standard of trust in the ever-changing digital environment.

Benefits of Embracing DMARC for your Business in 2024

Adopting DMARC goes beyond regulatory compliance. It is a proactive approach to ensuring the security of sensitive data, reducing financial risk and protecting corporate reputation.

It will help your business by:

• Anticipating Industry Shifts: Google and Yahoo mandating DMARC authentication for sending emails to their domains starting Feb 1, 2024, with expectations of other providers following suit.
• Safeguarding Sending Reputation: Shield your brand by stopping unauthorised parties from dispatching emails under your domain and improve trust in the emails your organisation sends
• Minimise risks of security breach and financial loss: Prevent company employees, customers, or partners into sending sensitive data or transferring funds.
• Ensuring Future Email Deliverability: DMARC instills a consistent policy for handling unauthenticated messages, nurturing a more secure and trustworthy email ecosystem—keeping you off spam lists.

How AMJ IT can help implement DMARC and put in place a comprehensive and proactive approach to your email security

Reinforcing security policies with DMARC goes beyond simple domain record authentication. It involves ongoing monitoring, quarantine, and rejection management:

• Monitoring involves collecting DMARC reports and analysing the external flow matrix.
• Quarantine requires recipients to consider non-compliant messages.
• Rejection requires recipients to reject any non-compliant mail.

Putting in place comprehensive managed services using email security platform and assisting with this ongoing process will minimise risks and help your business remain compliant.

AMJ IT managed services including different layers of security such as:

• Email threat protection — Putting in place robust and advanced managed antispam to protect your email communication
• Email impersonation Protection — Using advanced AI technology for spear phishing and cyber fraud defense
• Domain fraud protection — Preventing domain spoofing and impersonation simplified DMARC enforcement.
• Email Business Continuity – Providing comprehensive Cloud to Cloud backup solution to prevent data loss

For more information, get in touch with our team or take advantage of our free non compulsory technical assessment.