Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) is a powerful email security framework that protects against domain spoofing, phishing attacks, and other fraudulent activities. This is achieved through registering identifying characteristics, defining who is allowed to claim to be from a specific organization. When an email is sent using you branding, email providers can double check if the email is authentic or not.
Being able to offer DMARC services in addition to their other email services improves an MSP’s offering and provides more value to customers. If an MSP is already offering managed email services such as backup and recovery, it makes sense to offer DMARC too. By leveraging DMARC solutions, MSPs can provide increased visibility into their clients’ email ecosystems and ensure the legitimacy of outbound emails, all while preventing unauthorized parties from weaponizing their clients’ email domains maliciously.
The DMARC solutions market has grown in recent years, with various service providers tailoring their offerings to cater to MSPs, delivering practical, effective, and comprehensive email security solutions. This guide takes a closer look at the top DMARC solutions for MSPs, analyzing their features, capabilities, and integration potential.
This article will highlight the top DMARC solutions for MSPs, allowing them to enhance their offering and deliver more value to customers. We will consider key factors such as ease of implementation, reporting and analysis, ongoing support, and compatibility.
OnDMARC is a cloud-based application that offers automated business email protection by efficiently configuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for legitimate email sources. Its primary focus is to simplify the email security protocol through automation and clear instructions. This enables it to block email impersonation and spoofing attempts. OnDMARC ensures secure email communication with customers, suppliers, and partners by preventing vendor fraud and account takeovers.
Managing DMARC, DKIM, and SPF records within the OnDMARC interface eliminates the need for DNS access. Its dynamic SPF feature overcomes the 10 lookup limit, while maintaining authorized traffic and email deliverability. OnDMARC also provides an integrated BIMI and VMC solution to increase brand recall and email open rates by displaying brand logos next to emails.
The platform’s Sender Intelligence feature offers granular information about sending sources to quickly add clarity and resolve any issues. For easy DMARC configuration, the Investigate function turns hidden email header information into accessible data. There is also an MTA-STS feature that allows for smooth deployment and prevention of inbound email interception by cybercriminals.
Dmarcian focuses on improving email security for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that are serviced by Managed Service Providers (MSPs). Dmarcian provides a DMARC management platform that helps manage clients’ internet configurations and alerts MSPs when attention is needed. Since its inception in 2012, Dmarcian has been processing DMARC data and promoting its adoption for email protection. Their Partner Program offers value and pricing information for those interested in utilizing the platform to improve their email security processes.
The platform utilizes the native XML format in which DMARC data is transmitted, offering a visualization of the data for easy identification of authentication gaps (SPF/DKIM) and unauthorized domain usage. It also provides domain administration teams with the necessary features to adopt DMARC with clarity and confidence. This allows MSPs to focus on providing personalized client service and exploring new revenue opportunities. Dmarcian’s platform is powered by a highly accurate source classification industry that assures users of the true origin of a particular mail stream, promoting better cybersecurity and email practices.
EasyDMARC offers a Managed Service Provider (MSP) Partner Program designed to boost sales and provide more value to clients. With EasyDMARC’s platform, managing multiple clients and domains becomes a hassle-free experience. Businesses registered as an MSP partner can help their clients protect their email infrastructure against spoofing and phishing attacks through email authentication with DMARC.
The platform is built around a pay-as-you-go model, allowing cost efficiency and flexibility for MSPs. Its multi-tenant self-service platform allows for efficient domain management, while the permission management feature ensures proper role delegation and increased transparency. It also delivers group management features that streamline the handling of hundreds or thousands of domains.
EasyDMARC also offers white label reporting that allows MSPs to customize reports and downloadable materials to match their brand identity. Its smart DMARC reporting tool visualizes email traffic for better understanding. The platform’s reputation monitoring feature performs real-time checks on IPs and domains to prevent cybersecurity issues. EasyDMARC offers managed SPF, DMARC, and BIMI record setup and management through a clean dashboard, thereby further simplifying the management process.
To ensure comprehensive support, EasyDMARC’s professional support team is readily available to answer questions, provide technical knowledge, and offer guidance even after the initial one-on-one training.
DMARC Analyzer is Mimecast’s solution that aids in protecting your brand from domain spoofing by providing full visibility into all email senders using your domain. Mimecast deliver a partnership program that allows you to benefit from robust products and reliable income. Their DMARC analyszer helps organizations to differentiate between legitimate and fraudulent senders, while blocking delivery of unauthenticated emails. This solution builds upon existing email authentication techniques, such as SPF and DKIM, to prevent cybercriminals from impersonating your domains in phishing campaigns and Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks.
Mimecast DMARC Analyzer is designed to quickly analyze and enforce DMARC policies through user-friendly aggregate reports, charts, and forensic reports. The solution features a DMARC record setup wizard to simplify DNS updates and supports unlimited users, domains, and domain groups. The platform delivers daily and weekly reports to help track progress overtime. DMARC Analyzer also ensures security by offering two-factor authentication and proactive email alerts for DNS record changes.
Mimecast also offers free tools such as DMARC, DKIM, and SPF Record Check to test and verify the proper setup of these key email authentication techniques. With the aid of Mimecast DMARC Analyzer, organizations can efficiently combat domain spoofing and protect their brand reputation, business relationships, and outbound email deliverability.
Postmark is an email delivery service designed to help ensure effective and reliable delivery of application emails. By replacing SMTP or Sendmail, Postmark delivers a scalable and dependable solution for sending and tracking emails. With real-time statistics, users can monitor data such as the number of emails sent, processed, opened, bounced, and flagged as spam.
One of Postmark’s key features is the separation of emails into Message Streams. Transactional Message Streams are designed for personalized, one-to-one emails, triggered by user actions such as welcome emails, password resets, or order confirmations. Broadcast Message Streams, on the other hand, are for bulk emails like newsletters and announcements. The maximum email size is 10 MB with Postmark, including content, headers, and attachments.
Postmark offers API libraries for numerous programming languages, making it easy to integrate into existing tech stacks. The company has earned a strong reputation for email deliverability by vetting every new sender, ensuring adherence to best practices, and refusing service to spammers. Postmark supports both transactional and promotional emails, managing them separately to protect deliverability and performance. Postmark has an information section on its website explaining how the platform can be used to manage multiple domains simultaneously.
By partnering with Valimail, businesses can benefit from a host of comprehensive email authentication solutions including Valimail Monitor and Valimail Enforce. Both these platforms are designed for easy implementation and require minimal manual intervention. The Valimail Amplify tool provides a platform for managing the display of brand logos in BIMI, a system that streamlines brand consistency and email deliverability.
Valimail Monitor is a hassle-free monitoring solution that identifies and authorizes all email senders, while exposing non-authorized cloud sending services. It offers global visibility into all senders in the domain and ensures compliance without risking PII data. The platform also accelerates DMARC enforcement through using advanced automation tools. This boosts email deliverability by up to 10% and provides one-click service authorization within the ecosystem.
Valimail Amplify is focused on automating BIMI management, enabling organizations to manage brand consistency at scale. This effective tool is able to increase email open rates by up to 20% and offers control over how brand logos are displayed in participating mailbox providers. By partnering with Valimail, businesses can enjoy accessible and profitable solutions, while expanding their customer base through easily implemented DMARC management experiences.
DMARC is a means of verifying that an email has been sent from a verified account and that the messaging does represent the brand. This is important as it ensures that you can trust what an email says, rather than worrying about phishing and spoofing attacks.
DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance. It allows domain owners to authenticate their official messaging and define what action should be taken for emails that fail a compliance check.
DMARC uses SPF and DKIM records to verify an email’s origin and authenticity. In practice, a DMARC record is a text entry in the DNS. When checked, if SPF or DKIM checks are passed, the email is marked as authentic. This is important as it reduces the opportunities for malicious actors to use your organization as part of phishing or spoofing attacks, this, in turn, preserves your brand’s reputation.
DMARC solutions for MSPs allow for the configuration and management of multiple domains and addresses.
DMARC is built around three key policy frameworks: Domain Name System (DNS), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Sender Policy Framework (SPF). A DMARC check-up requires at least one of SPF or DKIM to identify an email (based on its header attributes) as an authentic one. When checking for authenticity, a solution will, essentially, check to see if an email’s sender details match with its advertised details.
Attackers using spoofing techniques may subtly replicate reputable domain addresses, altering one letter or another part of the address to dupe people into thinking it’s authentic. Whilst carrying out a DMARC check, the solution will ensure that the brand that an email says it’s from, is the actual sender. This allows the platform to easily identify malicious, imposter emails.
If this check is passed, emails are considered authentic and can carry on their journey. If they do not pass, and are considered inauthentic, you can set your DMARC policy to decide what action should be taken. This ranges from doing nothing, to monitoring, and blocking.
DMARC solutions allow organizations to improve their digital security and reduce the number of attacks that are carried out using their iconography. It is, therefore, important that as many organization’s as possible adopt DMARC procedures. Not all organizations, however, will have the technical resource to implement one. This is where MSP providers are able to manage and configure this for their customers. This enhances their offering, making them more attractive to potential customers.
MSP specific DMARC platforms will allow admin users to manage multiple domains individually and easily. Generating DMARC policies and updating DNS records can be streamlined, ensuring that there are no hold ups when it comes to configuring settings.
As with any management platform, visibility and ease of use are paramount.
Visibility – As you will be responsible for multiple domains and customers, it is essential that you can understand the status of each account, and quickly uncover contextual information to aid in resolving any issues. Having clear visibility across managed accounts ensures that you can work efficiently and proactively.
Ease of Use – You can also ensure that productivity remains high by using a streamlined and straightforward platform. Rather than having to carryout repetitive tasks (whether they are proactive or monitoring based), if these are automated or can be carried out across all (or selected) accounts, you’ll be able to achieve much more.
Monitoring – When a p=none policy is enacted, a DMARC solution will monitor the rates that emails are authorised and not. You will want to be kept updated of these rates, with notifications to update you when these rates pass pre-set benchmarks.
Cost – As you will be deploying this service to multiple companies, it is essential that a solution is cost effective and an enhances your business model. This not only means that you should be able to make a profit from managing DMARC, but that the solution remains cost effective and reflects a good investment for your end customer too.
Alex is an experienced journalist and content editor. He researches, writes, factchecks and edits articles relating to B2B cyber security and technology solutions, working alongside software experts. Alex was awarded a First Class MA (Hons) in English and Scottish Literature by the University of Edinburgh.
Craig MacAlpine is CEO and founder of Expert Insights. Before founding Expert Insights in August 2018, Craig spent 10 years as CEO of EPA cloud, an email security provider acquired by Ziff Davies, formerly J2Global (NASQAQ: ZD) in 2013, which has now been rebranded as VIPRE Email Security. Craig has extensive experience in the email security industry, with 20+ years of experience helping organizations to stay secure with innovative information security and cyber security solutions.