The Rise of DMARC: Level Up Your Domain Security Knowledge With EasyDMARC Academy

It’s no secret that today, our email inboxes have become a storage of tons of phishing emails competing with one another with their creativity, perfect impersonation, and the amount of damage they can cause.

In fact, 93% of successful cyberattacks begin with a phishing email. That is $500 million lost to phishing attacks every year: fake invoices, an email from the CEO, a kind request for credit card details, etc.

Anyways, it’s not stats like this that come to prove the rise of cyberattacks and phishing in general, as dozens of such cases happen around us daily.

Such email security breaches cost billions of dollars to business owners who are turning to DMARC for a more robust and reliable layer of security.

Now, let’s delve into the mounting demand for DMARC, the main implementation challenges IT departments face, and the EasyDMARC Academy as the go-to resource for mastering email security.

Why are More and More Businesses Implementing DMARC?

DMARC has become a must-have for businesses looking to protect their domains. It takes SPF and DKIM solutions to the next level by ensuring that emails meet those standards before letting them through. It’s essential for the safety of any organization and its customers as it:

• Prevents phishing and spoofing: DMARC confirms the authenticity of the emails sent from your domain by granting you full control over your email senders and volumes.

• Enhances your email deliverability: Such a level-up in your domain security will make sure your emails don’t end up in spam or junk folders and get delivered.

• Protects your brand reputation: By blocking any attempt of impersonation, DMARC protects your brand, stopping unverified parties from sending emails from your domain.

The list of DMARC benefits extends far beyond what we’ve covered, making it clear that implementing this protocol is a huge investment in email security and your brand image.

The Rising Need for DMARC: Market Trends and Adoption Insights

Now, let’s take a look at the DMARC trends, its rising need in the market, and the reasons behind it. DMARC.org’s analysis of the growing adoption of this email authentication standard perfectly shows the increasing number of valid DMARC records confirmed via DNS. Here are the results:

As mentioned earlier, this graph shows the total number of valid DMARC policies published from late 2016 through the first half of 2022.

This analysis, of course, doesn’t cover the entire Internet but is based on certain datasets still being enough to show the trends and rising demand of DMARC.

There are a number of reasons why the need for DMARC has increased in recent years, and here are several of them:

• The rise of cyberattacks: In the first half of 2022, our platform EasyDMARC alone blocked over 90 million phishing attacks. This number is quite disturbing considering the low percentage of domains worldwide being protected by any authentication standard.

• Government regulations: Some countries have taken serious steps to protect their citizens by making DMARC implementation mandatory/highly recommended for government domains or providing guidance to organizations. However, these policies and enforcement mechanisms vary from country to country, including The Netherlands, Canada, the UK, Australia, The US, etc.

• The Availability of DMARC tools: The availability of tools such as EasyDMARC, an all-in-one DMARC management system, have made it easier for business to implement and adopt it.

Together, these have resulted in a growing awareness of DMARC, with more and more organizations using this authentication standard.

The Implementation Challenges Faced by IT Departments and MSPs

With such a growing need for DMARC, IT departments and MSPs (Managed Service Providers) are actively implementing this policy to ensure emails sent from their or their clients’ domains are authenticated and legitimate.

However, DMARC implementation is quite challenging. Your IT team needs knowledge and expert guidance to solve the problems that arise during DMARC deployment.

In fact, 70% of organizations trying to deploy DMARC by themselves fail, with 68.2% of global active domains still stuck in the monitoring stage (p= “none”).

Let’s go through some of the current challenges and see what can go wrong when deploying this protocol.

- Insights From IT Departments

Complex Configuration: First things first, configuring DMARC records causes a big problem for IT administrators, especially for organizations with diverse email infrastructures.

A minor mistake can lead to an authentication error, and to avoid such issues, you need to generate a record according to all the required specifications.

Being Stuck on “Policy None”: As mentioned above, in the case of many domains, the DMARC record has been left at p=none for years, which basically means that these domains are not protected and fraudulent emails are still delivered.

On the other hand, you need to review all your sources, make them compliant one by one, and then go through p=none or quarantine.

Incomprehensible Reporting: Understanding the reporting is another significant challenge if you are not using DMARC software. ISPs (i.e., Google, Outlook, Yahoo, Zoho, etc.) directly send you those reports that contain compressed flat XML text with a lot of valuable data.

You should constantly review them to authenticate your legitimate sources and ensure email deliverability.

- Insights From MSPs

Surely, all the challenges mentioned above refer to MSPs as well. But here are two more:

Navigating Diverse Infrastructures: MSPs often work with various clients, each with unique email infrastructures. They all require adaptable strategies for DMARC implementation, thus making it harder for MSPs to manage the whole process.

Educating Clients for smooth implementation: They also need to make sure their clients understand the importance of DMARC and are actively engaged in the implementation processes.

In light of these challenges, it is crucial for both IT departments and MSPs to have access to comprehensive resources and expert guidance to facilitate the smooth implementation of DMARC protocols.

Your Free Professional Guide to Domain Protection: Become DMARC-Certified

Now that we've explored the challenges of DMARC implementation, it's time to introduce our EasyDMARC Academy, which will equip you with the right tools and knowledge you need to level up your domain security.

So far, we have prepared two detailed courses designed to elevate your understanding of DMARC and overall email authentication standards. We're proud to share that over 1,500 professionals have already been certified.

By enrolling, you'll dive into creating, checking, and implementing SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and BIMI records, learn how to get it to a strict “reject” policy, and become DMARC certified. Choose the right one for you and start your DMARC journey.

Mastering DMARC is essential for protecting your domain, brand, and customers. It’s the only reliable way to prevent phishing and spoofing and take responsibility for your outgoing emails.

But proper implementation is even more important as it demands knowledge and expertise to achieve peace of mind and ensure your recipients have full confidence in your communications.