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Email authentication is essential because email is a primary communication channel and a major target for cybercriminals. Without authentication, threat actors can easily impersonate your company’s domain, which can lead to financial, operational, and reputational damage.
Example:
A small business owner discovers that customers are receiving fraudulent invoices that appear to come from her company’s email address. By implementing Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC), she stops these spoofed emails, protecting both her customers and her brand’s reputation.
What is DMARC in email? DMARC is an email authentication protocol that protects domains from email spoofing and phishing attacks. By implementing a DMARC solution, organizations ensure that only authorized senders can use their domain and that messages haven’t been tampered with during transit. DMARC also helps improve email deliverability and strengthen recipient trust.
Interested in learning more?
DMARC enables domain owners to set policies that tell receiving email servers how to handle messages that fail Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) evaluations. So, what is DMARC doing behind the scenes? DMARC verifies whether incoming emails pass either SPF or DKIM and then applies the specified policy – monitor, quarantine, or reject – if authentication fails.
This process helps prevent unauthorized use of your company’s domain in email communications and protects against cyberthreats like phishing and spoofing.
In simple terms:
DMARC acts as a set of instructions for email providers. It tells them how to verify whether an email sent from your business’s domain is legitimate and what action to take if it’s not. This not only blocks unauthorized emails (when a policy of p=reject is enforced) but also provides visibility through reporting, allowing organizations to monitor email activity and identify potential misuse.
What is DMARC’s role in your company’s security stack? DMARC works by building on two key standards:
A DMARC solution combines these protocols and allows domain owners to:
When a DMARC policy is configured, email providers are instructed on how to handle emails that appear to come from your business’s domain but fail authentication checks:
| Policy | Action |
|---|---|
p=none | Take no action but send detailed reports to the domain owner |
p=quarantine | Send suspicious emails to the Spam or Junk folder |
p=reject | Block unauthenticated emails entirely |
By understanding DMARC, domain owners gain more visibility into their email environments. It significantly reduces the likelihood of phishing and spoofed emails reaching inboxes, strengthens email security, and helps maintain brand trust and integrity.
Learn more about the protocol’s benefits with Sendmarc’s DMARC management platform.
It might encounter DMARC in multiple common scenarios:
Understanding DMARC, even without technical expertise, enables better decision-making and helps your company enhance its email security posture.
DMARC protects your business’s domain from being used in phishing and spoofing attacks by verifying that emails claiming to be from its domain are actually authorized. A DMARC solution helps ensure only legitimate emails are delivered, reducing the chance of financial loss, data breaches, and reputational harm.
DMARC stops cybercriminals from sending fake emails that look like they’re from your organization, reducing the risk of phishing, fraud, and brand damage.
A basic understanding of SPF and DKIM is helpful but not strictly required to understand the purpose of DMARC. DMARC was created to build on these two protocols, making email authentication easier to manage and enforce.
Take the next step in securing your organization’s email domain by booking a personalized demo or starting a free trial today. Understanding DMARC can help your company prevent phishing, spoofing, and other email-based threats while improving deliverability and building trust with recipients.