DMARC Record Validation

DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance is a DNS TXT Record that gives an email domain owner the ability to protect their domain from unauthorized or malicious use, commonly known as email spoofing.

DMARC is an email authentication system created by PayPal, together with Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google.

Before DMARC, authenticating the email, either its real or fake, was quite a tough job. The organizations tried their best to filter out spam, malware, and phishing. But when the filters failed to judge between fake or real. They would let the end-users figure it out.

The DMARC record contains the rulesets. If the domain has a DMARC record, it includes the policy that the domain owner wants to implement that the recipients email server has to follow. That helps track all the messages sent to your domain by considering your DMARC policy.

The purpose and outcome of implementing DMARC records are to protect a domain from email compromise attacks, phishing emails, email scams, and other cyber threat activities.

The primary purpose of the DMARC records to handle the situation when the message fails authentication, i.e., that the recipients mail server fails to verify the messages sender (either the sender is the one who they say they are).

The DMARC record can be published for the domain to serve two primary functions.

• Tell the recipients server to either.
• Quarantine the message.
• Reject the message.
• Allow the message to continue delivery.
• Send reports to the email address or addresses containing the data of all the messages received from the domain.

These two principal functions bring massive value to the DMARC records. It tells the recipients mail server what to do if the message fails authentications. Either

• It should quarantine the email
• It should reject the email
• Or allow the emails to continue delivery.

The recipients mail server is bound to perform one of the three mentioned-above options if the DMARC record is published for that domain.

However, if no DMARC record is published against the mail server, then the recipients mail server makes its own decision that the messages should be delivered or not.

With the increase in hacking and spamming, including phishing, malware threats, and various other security concerns, the direct order to the recipients mail server to either quarantine or reject the message brings the golden standards for sending a legitimate email by blocking fraudsters.

DMARC Record gives email domain owners the ability to protect their domain from unauthorized use, resulting in the elimination of phishing, spoofing, and other malicious activities.

Insert DMARC record into DNS TXT Record through your DNS dashboard provided by your DNS manager. Or you can ask your DNS manager to establish such a record for each of your domains.

The DMARC record includes the email address where you want to receive the DMARC reports and the policy you want to implement if the message fails DMARC checks.

When you publish the DMARC record, you authorize the recipient to adopt one of the following policies if the senders email fails the DMARC checks.

These policies are

• Quarantine the message which fails DMARC checks. Mostly the receiver will place these messages in the junk folder.
• Reject the message which fails DMARC checks, which happens at the SMTP level, so the emails are bounced back during the sending process.
• Do not take any action. Allow the emails to continue delivery. This policy is used to gather the DMARC reports and in analyzing the data from these reports.

One of the primary functions of the DMARC record is reporting. When the domain owner publishes the DMARC record, they will gain insights into the email channel sending the emails on behalf of their domain, which helps analyze the email channel.

Therefore, each domain must have a DMARC record.

Its a standard that prevents spammers from using your domain for sending emails without your permission, resulting in the elimination of phishing, spoofing, and other malicious activities.