What are the best resources for learning and understanding DMARC?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Postmark explains that DMARC relies on SPF and DKIM to verify the authenticity of email messages. SPF verifies the sending server's IP address, while DKIM uses cryptographic signatures to ensure message integrity. DMARC builds on these mechanisms to provide a unified authentication framework.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that DMARC aggregate reports provide a summary of email authentication results, grouped by sending source and authentication status. These reports are sent daily and can be used to monitor email authentication performance over time.
Email marketer from GlockApps shares that the DMARC policy options are 'none,' 'quarantine,' and 'reject.' 'None' is for monitoring, 'quarantine' tells receivers to treat failing messages with suspicion, and 'reject' instructs receivers to block failing messages outright.
Email marketer from Proofpoint shares that DMARC implementation involves setting up SPF and DKIM, defining a DMARC policy, publishing the DMARC record in your DNS, and monitoring DMARC reports. Iterative analysis of these reports is essential to ensure that legitimate emails are authenticated and that you can confidently enforce your DMARC policy.
Email marketer from URIports explains that DMARC forensic reports (also known as failure reports) provide detailed information about individual email authentication failures. These reports can help identify the root cause of authentication issues and potential security threats.
Email marketer from Valimail shares that DMARC reports are crucial for understanding how your email is being handled by receivers. These reports provide insights into authentication failures and potential spoofing attempts, helping you to adjust your DMARC policy and authentication setup.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares a link to the kickbox blog, mentioning that they wrote a lot about authentication there.
Marketer from Email Geeks recommends a DMARC simulation animation from learndmarc.com.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce explains that DMARC alignment modes determine how strictly SPF and DKIM authentication results must match the domain in the From address. Alignment can be either 'strict' or 'relaxed,' affecting how DMARC policies are applied.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that it's best to start with a DMARC policy of 'p=none' to monitor your email traffic and identify any legitimate sending sources that might not be properly authenticated. Once you have a good understanding of your email ecosystem, you can gradually move to 'p=quarantine' and then 'p=reject'.
Email marketer from EasyDMARC explains that implementing DMARC protects your domain from being used in phishing attacks and email spoofing, improves email deliverability by signaling to ISPs that your emails are legitimate, and provides visibility into your email authentication ecosystem.
Email marketer from Mailhardener shares that a DMARC record is a TXT record published in the DNS. It includes tags such as 'v' (DMARC version), 'p' (policy), 'rua' (aggregate reporting URI), and 'ruf' (forensic reporting URI). The record should be carefully constructed to ensure proper syntax and semantics.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise shares a detailed approach to DMARC implementation, highlighting the importance of understanding existing sending practices, inventorying all email sources, and gradually transitioning to a stricter DMARC policy to minimize disruption and maximize email delivery.
Expert from Word to the Wise responds that DMARC's power lies in its ability to enforce policies on unauthenticated email, which can significantly reduce spoofing and phishing attacks. A key aspect is careful monitoring of DMARC reports to ensure legitimate email isn't inadvertently blocked during the enforcement process.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that one common cause of DMARC failures is when forwarded email breaks SPF. As forwarded mail originates from a different server than the original, the SPF record of the original sender won't match, leading to failure unless the forwarder rewrites the message to comply with SPF or DKIM.
Expert from Email Geeks shares a link to the M3AAWG training series on YouTube, noting that it is publicly available.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft explains DMARC is used to validate outbound email to prevent spoofing, and is one of three parts of email authentication (the other two are SPF and DKIM). DMARC's purpose is to indicate to recipient email systems what to do with messages that fail SPF or DKIM checks and are claimed to be from your organization's domain.
Documentation from dmarc.org explains that DMARC, which stands for “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance”, is an email authentication protocol. It builds on SPF and DKIM to add reporting, and allows domain owners to indicate how email receivers should handle messages that fail authentication.
Documentation from IETF explains that, alongside DMARC, opportunistic DANE can provide an extra layer of authentication for email. This uses TLS/SSL and DNSSEC to validate the server connection and domain ownership for increased security.
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin explains that DMARC helps email senders and receivers determine if a given message is legitimately from the sender, and what to do if it isn't. It prevents spammers from spoofing your domain. DMARC uses SPF and DKIM to verify email authenticity.
Documentation from RFC Editor explains that RFC7489 defines the DMARC standard. It details the mechanisms by which email senders can indicate that their messages are protected by SPF and DKIM, and how receivers should handle messages that fail authentication.