Major tech companies are increasingly concerned about email spoofing and want bulk senders to elevate their security game or face having their outreaches land in recipients’ spam folders.
That was the impetus behind Google and Yahoo’s DMARC requirements, which went into effect on Feb. 1 for anyone sending over 5,000 emails a day to accounts the companies’ host.
Digital consultants knew this was coming, but they aren’t the only ones rushing to comply with the new DMARC requirements. Campaigns and groups themselves often do their own sends in addition to what their vendors may have on the calendar. For those whose eyes glaze over the minute they hear “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance” there’s a new free solution.
Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC), a non-partisan, non-profit group that provides cybersecurity support to federal campaigns, announced this week it has partnered with Valimail, an automated DMARC software provider, to provide their services free of charge.
“Digital firms,” said Michael Kaiser, president and CEO of Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC), “they should be reviewing the DMARC and all the other sender statuses of all their clients — even if they think they’re complying, they should double check.”
Kaiser said part of the reason DDC partnered with Valimail was because it was so easy to implement. Many cybersecurity tools are ” built for enterprises that have cyber staff who are monitoring things all the time, or that require certain kinds of onboarding, which are more complicated.”
Kaiser said DDC looks for “set it and forget it kind of stuff.”
Valimail can also assist campaigns and groups with establishing other authentifications, including SPF and DKIM for their website domains.
“DMARC is only part of the game,” said Kaiser.
Despite DDC’s growing suite of cybersecurity tools available to federal campaigns, Kaiser said he’s concerned about the industry’s vulnerability.
“The environment looks pretty bad,” he said, pointing to the January robocall that hit New Hampshire voters ahead of the primary vote that spoofed President Biden’s voice.
“I know there’s an emphasis now on efforts trying to clamp down on some of that,” he said. “We’ll see how successful that is.”
