DMARC: 4 Years In! Learn how to implement DMARC in MailUp

We’re reminding you – our current and future customers – the importance of protecting your email communications with DMARC. In this blog post, we’ll be looking at the benefits DMARC authentication provides to senders as well as how to implement DMARC with your MailUp platform.

DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. It’s an internet standard introduced in 2012 by DMARC.org, an unincorporated working group dedicated to developing internet standards to reduce the threat of email phishing and to improve coordination between email providers and mail sender domain owners. On the technology side, DMARC is built on the widely deployed SPF and DKIM protocols, adding a reporting function that allows senders and receivers to improve and monitor protection of the domain from fraudulent email.

To know more about how DMARC works please refer to this video and all the great information published by Dmarcian.com.

Let’s look at the benefits of using DMARC for protecting your domain:

• Email fraud protection: Because of the reporting function in DMARC, senders and receivers can significantly prevent email phishing attacks. Senders can specify how to handle specific email communications from their domain to receivers (i.e. email providers such as Gmail). Senders and receivers can reject email traffic that fails the DMARC validation, hence limiting any phishing or fraudulent emails from getting in the inbox. This is a powerful anti-phishing tool used by the world’s leading email providers (such as AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail), financial institutions and service providers (such as Bank of America and PayPal), social media platforms (such as Facebook) and email security solutions providers (such as Agari and Return Path).
• Brand protection: DMARC provides senders protection of their email communications and brand from cybercriminals. A company’s brand can be negatively impacted by phishing or other fraudulent attacks on its email communications. Implementing the latest authentication email standards such as DMARC is the only way to protect your domain and brand.
• Simplified delivery: It has never been an easy task to identify an email in an accurate and effective manner. On the back end, it’s an activity that takes up time and resources and is sometimes inaccurate, causing false positives or negatives. Just think how difficult it is to sort out all the global email volume, considering that 80% of all emails sent are spam according to Return Path. Through DMARC, classifying emails is much more accurate and simpler.
• Enhanced domain reputation: Based on the correct domain authentication, DMARC allows receivers to weigh a sender’s reputation based more on its domain reputation and less on its IP address reputation. With DMARC, senders can establish a solid domain reputation.

As a MailUp sender, you can fully implement DMARC at any time and start protecting your domain. Here are two options available on how to implement DMARC:

1. Provide us with a subdomain and we’ll be able to implement your DMARC record into DNS. For example, newsletter.yourdomain.com can be the subdomain you dedicate for us to use in our DMARC setup. We’ll also be optimizing your MailUp platform so that emails send will be DMARC validated.
2. Manual configuration. In alternative to option 1, you can setup your DNS records and SPF and DKIM following these steps from our deliverability quick guide. The correct setup should allow your MailUp platform to send emails, which will be DMARC validated. This is a more flexible option that allows you to update your sending domains (as well as Return Path, DKIM signature, and tracking settings).

To learn more please visit our webpage Implementing a DMARC Policy with MailUp. Feel free to post any questions below in the comments section. Using DMARC already? Let us know how it’s going!