Introduction

What is a DMARC Record

DMARC stands for (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance). Avoid emails landing up in Spam folder by authenticating them with DMARC record.

DMARC record is a DNS record which helps senders and receivers to determine whether or not a message is sent from the sender legitimately. DMARC is the best way to protect your customers, your brand, and your employees from phishing and spoofing attacks.

DMARC is built upon two other authentication protocols - SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail).
In combination with SPF and DKIM, a DMARC policy in DNS allows you to set rules or policies to reject or quarantine (junk folder) emails from sources you do not know.

Benefits of having DMARC

• Better control over email spam.
• Reduce phishing.
• Provide authentication reporting.

Sample DMARC record

v=DMARC1; p=none; pct=100; rua=mailto:name@domain.com; sp=none; aspf=r;

1. v=DMARC1 specifies the DMARC version.
2. p=none specifies the preferred treatment or DMARC policy.
3. pct=100 is the percentage of mail to which the domain owner would like to have its policy applied.
4. rua=mailto:name@domain.com is the mailbox to which aggregate reports should be sent.

What are DMARC policies

DMARC standard provides three different set of policies for a domain to specify how to handle emails that fail DMARC validation.

Following are the three policies of DMARC:

• None: No DMARC validation.
• Quarantine: The mail is accepted and placed in the inbox if the validation is successful; otherwise it lands in the spam folder.
• Reject: The mail is rejected immediately.

Note! The domain owner can only request, not force, enforcement of its DMARC record; it’s up to the inbound mail server to decide whether or not to honour the requested policy.