Setting Up DMARC On Bluehost

The objective of DMARC is to help reduce spam, preserve brand reputation and increase email deliverability by enabling domain owners to prevent spoofing. DMARC allows owners to tell other users how to handle unauthorized use of their email domain using the DMARC record policy. These policies include the following:

• p=none or no action taken
• p=quarantine or quarantining the email in the spam folder
• p=reject, i.e., or rejecting these emails outright.

DMARC also provides a reporting mechanism for admins to identify adversaries trying to spoof their domains.

How To Setup DMARC Record On Bluehost?

One can set up DMARC without SPF or DKIM, but that achieves nothing as these are prerequisites. DMARC is a simple one-line entry in a domain’s DNS records. Here are the steps you must follow if you are using Bluehost as your hosting provider.

• Log in to the user account of cPanel on Bluehost
• Secondly, select “DNS Zone Editor”
• Select the domain that is needed to be updated or edited. This action takes the user to DNS Zone Editor
• Select “Add Record” to publish DMARC. If there is a pre-existing DMARC record, you must edit that record only instead of creating a new one, as multiple DNS records cause errors.

There will be several fields to fill up in the Modify DNS zone

• Under the domain named “Host Record,” enter “_dmarc”
• Enter the TTL Value of choice in the field named “TTL” (for example, 1 hour)
• Select TXT in the field “Type”
• In “Points To,” type the DMARC TXT record
• Select “Add Record”

With these steps, the DMARC records will be successfully published in the DNS and appear in the records within 72 hours.

Final Words

Adversaries might misuse a domain in various ways if authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC have not been implemented for the domain. As a domain owner, by adding DMARC records after adding SPF and DKIM, you have taken the first step towards preventing spoofing attempts by cyber adversaries, enhancing brand reputation, and improving email deliverability. SPF, DMARC, and DKIM should be implemented together for complete email security against spoofing from cyber adversaries.