DMARC and DKIM FAQs

DMARC FAQs

What is DMARC?

Working in conjunction with SPF and DKIM, DMARC is an open email standard to enable domain-level protection of the email channel. DMARC stands for “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance.”

Why use DMARC?

Companies use DMARC to preserve their brand equity, eliminate customer support costs related to email fraud, and to renew trust and engagement.

What does DMARC prevent?

Using DMARC will prevent spammers from getting emails that appear to be sent from your domain into recipients’ mailboxes. These spoofed emails can caused serious damage to their recipients – who may be your customers.

How does DMARC help me learn about threats to my reputation?

Because DMARC checks with your records whenever an email appears to have come from your domain, you can learn how many spam emails are being sent out with your domain’s name.

What does DMARC allow my organization to do?

With DMARC, you are able to authenticate all legitimate email messages that appear to be sent from your domain, including those owned by third party domains. You can also publish and explicit policy that instructs email providers what to do if a message is determined not to be legitimate – either sending the message to a junk folder or rejecting it entirely.

What are some companies that use DMARC?

Companies that use DMARC include Bank of America, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and PayPal.

Is DMARC only for large companies?

Because DMARC policies are published in the public DNS, anyone can use DMARC.

How much does DMARC cost?

There is no purchase necessary with DMARC, but managing it can be time-intensive and technically challenging.

DKIM FAQs

What is DKIM?

DKIM is an email authentication standard that cryptographically associates a domain name with an email message. Sent emails include a cryptographic signature that the receiving inbox can verify using DNS-hosted public keys.

Why use DKIM?

Email recipients who validate a DKIM signature can use that validation to limit spoofing, spam, and phishing.

Who validates the DKIM signature?

Any individual in an email’s transit path may choose to validate the signature of a signed email.

What does a DKIM signature mean?

When a DKIM signature is used, the domain owner is backing up the validity of the email with his or her domain’s reputation.

Do I need to change software to use DKIM?

Yes, you will need to add code in the appropriate agent and modify your DNS administrative tools to permit the creation of DKIM key records.

How is DKIM different than SPF?

When verification is successful, DKIM provides a domain-level identifier that survives the forwarding of a message while SPF does not.

How old is DKIM?

Although you may not have heard of DKIM, it was produced by a group of email industry leaders in 2004.

What components make up how DKIM works?

DKIM uses a DNS-based public key publishing service, a domain name identifier, and public-key cryptography.

How do I set up DKIM?

Setting up DKIM yourself can be time consuming and technically challenging. Sendio makes it easy for your organization to put this technology to use to protect your reputation.

How does Sendio help with my DKIM implementation?

Sendio has a very simple-to-use feature that allows you to sign outbound messages. Using Sendio along with DMARC provides you a critical component to your security efforts.