DMARC — Email Authentication
DMARC: The Foundation of
Email Trust
Helping organizations progress to DMARC enforcement with confidence.
Your Brand Deserves a Safer Inbox.
Email is powerful, but it’s also one of the easiest channels for attackers to exploit.
Without authentication, organisations face phishing, impersonation, and damaged trust.
Email Authentication Standard
DMARC builds on SPF and DKIM to help receiving mail servers determine whether an email is legitimate. It allows domain owners to:
- Specify how unauthenticated email should be handled
- Receive reports on who sends email on their behalf
- Reduce domain spoofing and phishing risk
Protect Your Brand & Customers
Without DMARC, attackers can impersonate trusted brands. Implementing DMARC helps organisations:
- Prevent phishing and email-based fraud
- Protect brand reputation and customer trust
- Improve email deliverability for legitimate messages
- Gain insight into all email sources using their domain
Three Levels of Control
DMARC applies a policy telling receiving servers what to do when authentication fails:
- p=none - Monitor only
- p=quarantine - Treat suspicious messages with caution
- p=reject - Block unauthorised messages
How DMARC Works
DMARC aligns two existing authentication mechanisms, SPF and DKIM to give
domain owners control and visibility over how their domain is used in email.
The DMARC Journey: From Monitoring to Enforcement
DMARC is not a one-step implementation. Most organisations progress through stages toward full enforcement.
1
Stage 1
Monitoring
- Gain visibility into all email sources using your domain
- Identify legitimate and unauthorised senders
- No impact on mail flow, monitoring only (p=none)
- Start receiving and reviewing DMARC aggregate reports
2
Stage 2
Policy Refinement
- Align SPF and DKIM records correctly for all sending sources
- Reduce authentication failures across legitimate mail streams
- Authorise third-party senders sending on your behalf
- Prepare for enforcement with confidence
3
Stage 3
Enforcement
- Actively protect the domain (p=quarantine or p=reject)
- Block or quarantine unauthorised email
- Significantly reduce phishing and spoofing risk
- Unlock BIMI, CMC, and VMC eligibility
DMARC as a Prerequisite for BIMI, CMC and VMC
DMARC enforcement is mandatory for advanced trust and brand indicators in email. Without it, you cannot display verified brand logos in supported inboxes.
BIMI
Brand Indicators for Message Identification — display your verified logo in every inbox.
Not sure which Mark Certificate is right for you? Discover the differences between VMC and CMC options.
Common Challenges with DMARC
Many organisations struggle with DMARC implementation. Click each challenge to learn more about the barriers slowing progress to enforcement.
Limited internal expertise or bandwidth to manage DMARC implementation end-to-end. Many IT teams lack the specific knowledge of email authentication protocols required to safely progress through all stages.
Multiple sending platforms — CRMs, marketing tools, helpdesks — make it difficult to align all sources under a single DMARC policy without risking legitimate email delivery.
An incomplete picture of which third-party services are sending email on behalf of a domain makes it impossible to safely move to enforcement without inadvertently blocking legitimate mail.
Fear that moving to a quarantine or reject policy will inadvertently block legitimate email. This is one of the most common reasons organisations stall at the monitoring stage for extended periods.
DMARC reports are complex XML files that require dedicated tools and time to interpret correctly. Without proper tooling, it is extremely difficult to act on the data within reports efficiently.
How GlobalSign Supports Your DMARC Journey
GlobalSign helps organisations align DMARC with broader email trust and authentication strategies — from foundational education to certificate issuance.
Trusted DMARC Partners
Working with trusted partners to address visibility and monitoring needs — providing a structured path toward verified inbox trust for organisations at every stage of the DMARC journey.
Education to Enforcement
From foundational DMARC education to partner-supported implementation, GlobalSign supports organisations at every stage with expert guidance on email trust and authentication strategy.
Our DMARC Partner
GlobalSign × Red Sift
Not DMARC-Ready Yet? We've Got You Covered.
In some cases, organisations require deeper visibility, reporting, and guidance to progress safely through DMARC implementation. GlobalSign works with Red Sift — a trusted DMARC partner — who specialises in monitoring, analysis, and enforcement support.
- Automatically discover all domains and subdomains sending email
- Update DNS once and manage all protocols from a single platform
- Continuously surface forgotten or misconfigured DNS records
- Backed by one of the highest-rated customer success teams
- Leverage a security-trained LLM for smarter insights
- DMARC enforcement in as little as 6–8 weeks
Get DMARC Ready with GlobalSign and Red Sift
Expert guidance and visibility to prepare your organization for DMARC enforcement. Together with our trusted partner Red Sift, we provide deep visibility into your email ecosystem and a clear, guided path to DMARC enforcement.
- Accelerate DMARC readiness to unlock BIMI and Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) opportunities.
- Red Sift OnDMARC helps you reach p=reject faster, protecting against spoofing, phishing, and Business Email Compromise (BEC).
Why Red Sift?
Additional Resources and Information
Explore our blog posts to deepen your understanding of DMARC, email authentication and brand trust.
GLOBALSIGN
Speak to GlobalSign about DMARC Readiness
If you are exploring DMARC implementation or preparing for BIMI, CMC or VMC, GlobalSign can help you understand your current position and next steps. From foundational education to partner-supported implementation, we support organisations at every stage of the DMARC journey.
Talk to Our Team
We'll help you understand your DMARC readiness and the right certificate for your brand.