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What is a DMARC Policy?: The 3 Types, Which to Implement & Other Requirements

In this post, we’ll briefly explain what a DMARC policy is , how to set up your DMARC email record, what the three types of DMARC policies are and when to implement each one, and how to diagnose and fix any issues associated with it. Basically, your DMARC policy tells email receivers what to do with illegitimate or possibly fraudulent emails—whether to reject, quarantine, or accept them. Overall...
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DMARC Quarantine vs. DMARC Reject: Which Should You Implement?

You did it! You can now take a quiz and accurately answer "What Is DMARC?"! Next you've generated your DMARC record, implemented your policy, and authenticated your email domains. DMARC is no easy feat in itself and now, after DNS requests, third-party conference calls and writing internal policies, you are ready...to enforce a stricter DMARC policy ! If your DMARC policy has been set to p=none...
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DKIM vs. SPF Email Standards: Do I Need Them Both?

When it comes to email authentication standards, should you use DKIM, SPF, or both? We’re going to cover these terms, when you should use them, what they do—and how best to protect your email domains. Is it Either/Or—or Both? Should the battle really be SPF vs. DKIM? While not mandatory, it’s highly recommended to use both SPF and DKIM to protect your email domains from spoofing attacks and fraud...
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What Is the Meaning of the SPF Email Standard and How Does It Work?

We're going to delve into what the meaning of SPF for email is, how to implement it, the benefits of deploying it, and how to further protect your email-sending domains. What is SPF for Email? Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email authentication standard that domain owners use to specify the email servers they send email from, making it harder for fraudsters to spoof sender information. SPF...
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DKIM Guide: How to Set Up the Email Standard Step by Step

In this DKIM setup guide, we’ll walk you through the steps on how to set up DKIM correctly, test it, avoid common pitfalls, and fix common mistakes. In case you’re new to DKIM, or DomainKeys Identified Mail, we’ll start with a high-level overview before getting to the step-by-step instructions, but you can first look up your DKIM record here . What is DKIM? A Brief Introduction DKIM is a standard...
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What Is Email Spoofing & How You Protect Against It

What is Email Spoofing? Email spoofing is one of the most common forms of cybercriminal activity, specifically a form of identity deception that's widely used in phishing and spam attacks. It underpins the mechanism required to conduct hacking activities, and it can take many forms. Unfortunately, most email users will eventually receive an email that has been spoofed—whether they know it or not...
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The Definitive Report Analyzer: Deciphering DMARC

It takes years to build trusted relationships with your customers — but as all-too-familiar headlines and recounted tales of woe from IT departments tell us, cybercriminals can abuse that trust to trick your customers, employees, and partners into opening their malicious emails in a matter of minutes.  DMARC, or Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance, is an essential email...
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DMARC Authentication: Is DIY’ing it Worth the Risk?

Do-it-yourselfers abound everywhere in these days – from YouTube stars demonstrating the latest hacks through tutorials to entire cable channels and streaming networks devoted to DIY, average laypeople have become self-proclaimed experts in a variety of areas and skills. But should you take a do-it-yourself approach when it comes to technology and email security, or more specifically to DMARC...
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Office 365 + DMARC: Best Practices for Protecting Your Company & Customers From Phishing Attacks

In 2021, Gartner includes DMARC, or known by its full name as Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance, in its list of top 10 security projects . With very few exceptions, the best way for organizations to prevent getting impersonated in email attacks is to integrate DMARC into their Office 365-based email ecosystems. To understand why, let’s consider the benefits of deploying...
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5 Big Myths about DMARC, Debunked

With email attacks contributing to billions of lost dollars each year, a growing number of organizations are adopting Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) in an effort to protect themselves and their customers from fraudsters. Adoption of DMARC has steadily gained traction since the onset of the pandemic, and the original email authentication protocols at the heart...
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It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year… for Cybercriminals

The holiday season is upon us, which means it’s also the busiest time of the year for online shopping. There’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and gifts to buy for loved ones. Plus, gifts to buy for yourself when the deals are this good! But beware, for cybercriminals ‘tis also the season to scam millions of dollars from unsuspecting people and companies. They’re banking on people being in a rush and...
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TLS Email Encryption: What It Is & How to Check if Your Email Is Using It

What exactly is TLS when it comes to email encryption? TLS, or cybersecurity protocol Transport Layer Security first developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), was designed to establish secure communications that provide both privacy and data security. Originally created from another encryption protocol called Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, you may hear others use SSL and TLS...
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How to Implement the BIMI-Selector Header for Multiple Brands

Wondering what Brand Indicators for Message Identification actually means? Here, we’ll cover the basics of BIMI, what the BIMI-selector header is, what it does, whether you need it, and how to implement it. But first, do you really need the BIMI-selector header? In most cases, you only need the BIMI-selector header if you want to support multiple logos for multiple brands or subdomains. Otherwise...
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5.8B Malicious Emails Spoofed Domains; 76% of Fortune 500 Still at Risk: DMARC Results from Agari

Global adoption of Domain-based Messaging, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) topped 10.7 million email domains worldwide in 2020—reflecting a 32% increase in just six months, according to our H1 2021 Email Fraud & Identity Trends Report . The total number of domains with DMARC set to its highest level of protection against email spoofing climbed to 3.8 million during the same period. That's up a...
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What is DMARC? Effects on Email Spoofing & Deliverability

Wondering how DMARC affects email? Here’s a comprehensive guide explaining what DMARC is, how it affects email, and why your company needs it for security. What is DMARC? What does DMARC mean? DMARC, short for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance, is an email authentication protocol to help email administrators prevent fraudsters from spoofing email domains by specifying...
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DMARC 101 (Part I) – S/MIME, SPF, and DKIM

Why do you need DMARC to protect your email domains from being leveraged in phishing attacks? To get the full picture, let's look at the basics—and how DMARC came to be. What is DMARC? Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance, or DMARC , is an open email authentication protocol that helps senders protect their email domains from being spoofed by fraudsters in phishing attacks...
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BIMI: What It Is & Why It Matters to Email Security

Curious how BIMI can protect your email? I’ll explain what BIMI is, how it works, and how you can use it to protect your brand’s email communications. What is BIMI? Brand Indicators for Message Identification, or BIMI, provides a standardized method for businesses to showcase their brand logo next to the subject line of their authenticated emails so they stand out in crowded inboxes, with built-in...
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Email Security: Agari Delivers a Whole New Level of Actionable Insight to Outpace Threat Actors

CISOs and their teams are about to get some serious performance enhancers in their high-stakes race against email security threats. According to the FBI, phishing campaigns, business email compromise (BEC) scams, and other advanced email attacks have resulted in $26 billion in business losses over the course of three years. Then 2020 happened. With 75 million corporate employees even now still...
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DMARC: 3 Best Practices for Capturing Next-Level Business Value

Implementing DMARC at its highest enforcement level is critically important to security and messaging operations. But it's also just the first step to realizing the full value of your DMARC program. To understand why, let's start with the basics. DMARC , which stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance, can stop fraudsters from spoofing your domain and impersonating...
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DKIM for Email: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Add It

We'll cover what DKIM for email is, why your company needs it, how it works, how to set DKIM up, and additional ways to prevent email spoofing attacks. What is DKIM? First, let’s clarify what DKIM is in email. DomainKeys Identified Mail is a technique that uses your domain name to sign your emails with a digital “signature” so your customers know it’s really you sending those emails and that they...