Email was never actually built with keeping security in mind. Back in the day, it was just a medium of communication, and it operated on trust. This made it a vulnerable target for threat actors who started exploiting email for spoofing, phishing, and spam. Over the years, email threats evolved, triggering the need for authentication mechanisms to verify if the sender is actually who they are claiming to be and protect recipients.
It’s been more than a year since Google and Yahoo pushed domain owners to adopt DMARC. This push has paid off partially— why partially? Because the number of domains with DMARC has doubled, but they aren’t configured strictly. Domain owners have just implemented DMARC for the sake of it, but have done nothing to advance the policies and strengthen email security. As per a survey done by Mailgun, 66% of senders are aware that they are using both SPF and DKIM for email authentication. About 25.7% of respondents don’t know how their organizations are using DKIM and SPF, and less than 9% said they are using only one of the two.
Dealing with DMARC failures: Here’s how you can fix the errors
by DuoCircle
DMARC is one of the most fundamental and robust email authentication protocols out there. It not only keeps impersonators at bay and protects your domain from being misused but also gives you visibility into who is sending emails on your behalf.
How to safeguard your online presence with MFA and DMARC?
by DuoCircle
Digitization seems like a double-edged sword. You choose it, and you may lose your data. You ignore it, and you will be declared obsolete soon!
Every day, we come across multiple news stories of cyberattacks around the globe. This makes us believe that cyber threats are real and that threat actors are lurking around us, waiting to attack us the moment we go carefree. Common people as well as the biggest global agencies and critical infrastructures have been on the radar of threat actors.
In the world of email communication, trust is everything. Just think about it: your inbox is a gateway to countless messages, some of which are vital for work or personal life. Yet, with the rise of email spoofing and phishing attacks, keeping your communications safe can feel like a daunting task. Fortunately, there’s a solution that doesn’t require you to be a tech whiz: SPF records. These simple yet effective tools help you verify which servers are allowed to send emails from your domain, acting as a safeguard against deceptive practices. In this article, we’ll dive into how to create accurate SPF records using generators, the importance of these records for email security, and ways to troubleshoot common issues—all in an effort to ensure your emails reach their intended recipients safely and securely.
DMARC TempError- What is it and how can this issue be resolved?
by DuoCircle
DMARC TempErrors are the different types of authentication issues in DKIM and SPF policies. These are temporary in nature. Fixing them is important, or they may lead to DMARC failure for your legitimate emails. DMARC is one of the most significant email authentication policies, which enables domain owners to instruct recipient email servers about emails that fail SPF and DKIM checks. A TempError can easily disrupt this process, thereby hampering email authentication and deliverability.
Preparing for the discontinuation of the NCSC aggregate DMARC reporting feature
by DuoCircle
Beginning March 24, 2025, the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has stopped providing DMARC aggregate reports. Mail Check is NCSC’s official platform that helps domain owners evaluate email security compliance so that they can figure out if someone is abusing their email domains. It has discontinued the aggregating reporting feature to enhance accessibility and manage costs.
There are plenty of communication channels out there, but the one that has stayed and created the most significant impact on businesses is email. You might agree with us when we say that email is indispensable when it comes to connecting your brand to your clients.
DMARC TempErrors refer to temporary authentication issues related to email standards such as DKIM and SPF, which can lead to failures in DMARC validation. These errors can result in sporadic email delivery problems, particularly when using Microsoft servers, and addressing them may involve utilizing monitoring services like dmarcian.com for insights into performance metrics and error diagnostics.
A DKIM selector is a string included in the DKIM signature of an email, which helps the recipient’s mail server locate the corresponding public key stored in DNS records for verification purposes. It is essential for ensuring that emails sent from your domain can be properly authenticated, thereby enhancing your email security and integrity.
The ‘fo’ tag in DMARC stands for ‘failure options.’ It’s an optional tag that helps domain owners specify the types of authentication and alignment issues that must be reported. This tag supports four specific types of failure reports: fo=0, fo=1, fo=d, and fo=s. The ‘fo’ tag can combine multiple reporting options, enabling you to create a customized reporting strategy that aligns best with your preferences and risk tolerance.
In a digital world where email is still a primary mode of communication, protecting your domain from malicious attacks has never been more critical. You may think email security only pertains to big corporations, but every organization, large or small, should be on alert against threats like phishing and spoofing.
The role of canonicalization in preventing email breakage in DKIM
by DuoCircle
DKIM policy secures your email communications by detecting any kind of tampering or alterations during the transit. However, the journey from your outbox to a receiving inbox is an intricate one. Since emails get delivered super quick, we fail to notice the minor changes that take place during the process. The mail systems may lead to certain minor changes in the email content (line breaks, case differences, whitespace, and so on). Even though the changes may not appear to be too major, they can affect the integrity of the email, thereby resulting in DKIM failure. In order to avoid these instances of false negatives, you must focus on canonicalizing your emails.
Is BIMI just an authentication protocol? 6 Reasons it’s more than that!
by DuoCircle
Your emails are not simply a communication channel; they are a representation of your brand, its trustworthiness, identity, and professionalism. Similarly, Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) is more than just an authentication protocol.
There is no doubt that DMARC is deployed to prevent phishing and spoofing emails; however, misconfigured DMARC records are synonymous with exploitable vulnerabilities. DMARC is implemented in tandem with SPF and DKIM. This email authentication structure compensates for the drawbacks of SPF and DKIM. SPF’s drawback is that it is highly likely to break when emails are forwarded; this means when someone forwards a legitimate email, the receiving server will either mark it as spam or reject it. DKIM’s drawback is that it triggers false positives because of inadvertent message modifications.
Everything you need to know about setting up email authentication on Mailchimp!
by DuoCircle
If you want your emails to reach your subscribers’ inboxes without any hassle, setting up email authentication for your authorized domain is something you can’t afford to ignore. Domain authentication enables you to send out your emails to the right inbox. It also enables you to maintain your subscriber base and grow them eventually by keeping them actively engaged.
How does DKIM alignment affect overall DMARC compliance?
by DuoCircle
DMARC is based on SPF and DKIM results. For an email to pass the DMARC checks, it has to pass at least one of the protocols and have alignment with the domain in the ‘From’ header.
Have you already implemented DMARC but still think there’s a possibility of phishers slipping your email ecosystem and sending fraudulent emails on your behalf?
Yahoo Japan has mandated DMARC and domain authentication
by DuoCircle
In November 2023, Yahoo announced that by February 1st, 2024, any company that sends more than 5,000 emails per day has to deploy DMARC to minimize the risk of email-based spoofing, phishing, and ransomware. After this announcement, the rate of DMARC adoption surged, and now Yahoo Japan has also made DMARC and domain authentication mandatory for users as of December 2024. Experts see this as a great opportunity to improve companies’ email security posture.(more…)
