Your cybersecurity should be a priority.
Most modern businesses store their data online, which comes with the risk of a data breach. IT and cybersecurity providers are there to reduce the chances of that happening.
Phishing emails, domain spoofing, and numerous other cyber threats can damage your brand and your relationship with your customers in an instant.
Read more: Phishing 101: Can you get hacked by opening an email?
Why is DMARC important?
DMARC is a defence mechanism for your emails. Most businesses nowadays have their own email domain – something along the lines of @companyname.co.uk.
This provides you with a number of benefits, such as enhanced professionalism. It also builds trust with your customers and reinforces your brand identity.
Take a look at our full page on Advanced Domain Security
But phishing and spoofing emails can utilise your email domain, pretend to be a member of the company and begin sending spam emails, leaving you open to a data breach or cyber attack.
This is where DMARC comes in – acting as a bodyguard for your email address. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is a security protocol that helps protect your domain from being used in phishing and spoofing attacks.
Understanding SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
DMARC uses two protocols: SPF and DKIM. These two elements work together to verify senders and detect tampering or suspicious activity.
Hereās how they work.
What is SPF?
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) essentially acts like a bouncer for your email domain. Your domain will have a list of approved IP addresses that indicate you are authorised to send emails on behalf of that domain.
How it works ā a breakdown:
- You or your IT provider publishes an SPF record in your domainās settings.
- This record, as mentioned above, includes a list of approved IP addresses.
- When someone receives an email from your domain, the server checks the approved list.
This stops spammers from faking your domain.
But what if your email has been tampered with in transit? This is where DKIM comes in.
What is DKIM?
DKIM takes your entire email message (full content and caption) and creates a unique cryptographic hash (a digital fingerprint) which covers your email in a safety net and is stamped with a DKIM header that links to the digital footprint of your DNS.
This way, emails that have been sent from your domain are checked to make sure that they have not been altered within either the messaging or the links.
How it works ā a breakdown:
- A pair of cryptographic keys (one public, one private) is generated for the sending domain.
- The private key that was generated essentially marks the entire mail with a digital fingerprint, including important information such as the sender, recipient, and subject.
- The other (public) cryptographic key is stored in your serverās DNS records.
- So when the receiving email server gets that email, it will retrieve the public key from the server’s DNS records to verify the digital fingerprint on the email.
- If the signature is valid, it will pass the DKIM authentication.
- However, the private key is changed and becomes invalid if the email has been tampered with and will therefore fail authentication.
Where does DMARC come in?
DMARC is essentially the enforcer and works with both SPF and DKIM, using the results of both to determine what to do with emails that fail authentication on either or both.
The beauty of DMARC is that the power is in the hands of the owner of the domain, as flagged emails will come through to them marked as spam or rejected.
You can keep flagged emails for reporting, allowing you to see where spammers are getting through to improve your email security.
A final thought
DMARC, DKIM, and SPF are three protocols that are crucial to your business to avoid the likelihood of data breaches and cyber attacks.
A stat that is echoed continuously is that 95% of data breaches are tied to human error through phishing or spoofing emails.
Donāt be included in that statistic ā utilise these protocols and keep your business safe.
