Setting Up DMARC Office 365 And How to Protect Your Online Reputation By Stopping Email Spoofing

Setting up DMARC Office 365 can prevent spoofing and phishing attacks on all stakeholders connected to you, thereby closing the gateway to the ills of malware and cyberthreats. Besides, DMARC helps prevent your genuine email messages from being marked as spam. Here is how to set up DMARC Office 365.

Email correspondence gains significance as your business flourishes. No organization can do without emails because it provides the most convenient communication mode with clients and staff. But, at the same time, emails also offer an ideal gateway for malicious actors for phishing, spoofing, business email compromise (BEC), etc., and introduce malware into network systems.

Therefore, it becomes imperative for all organizations to have proper email authentication standards. DMARC has all the necessary solutions to prevent your domain from being misused by malicious actors. This article focuses on setting up DMARC Office 365 and preventing email spoofing and phishing.

DMARC Definition in Brief

Before discussing Office 365 DMARC, it is essential to understand the concept of DMARC clearly. DMARC, or Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance, a free and open technical solution, was initially published in 2012. It helps authenticate emails and enables businesses to stay protected from the ills of malicious tactics like spoofing, phishing, spam, and BEC with the help of two authentication mechanisms, SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). The DMARC rules are implemented by publishing a DMARC record in a domain’s DNS.

DMARC has three policies that help decide what to do with unauthorized emails. They are.

  • p=none: It only monitors email traffic and does not take further action.
  • p=quarantine: It moves unauthorized emails to your spam/junk folders.
  • p=reject: It ensures unauthorized emails do not get delivered at all.

Setting up DMARC record Office 365 ensures that malicious actors cannot impersonate your business email domain and send fake information in your name. The following sections will help you set up DMARC Office 365 on your email systems.

Setting Up a DMARC Record in Office 365

As mentioned above, a DMARC record published in your DNS (Domain Name System) defines the rules for DMARC implementation. It contains the DMARC policies described earlier to inform Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that your domain has been set up to use DMARC. After that, every email will adhere to the DMARC record’s policies.

Any business entity can set up DMARC record Office 365 by following these simple steps.

  • Open Office 365 Admin Center

Initially, you log in to the Office 365 Admin center.

  • Select your domains

Access the Settings menu and select Domains.

  • Select Office 365 domain

The menu allows you to search, select, or add any desired Office 365 domain for which you wish to implement DMARC.

  • Add DMARC record

Selecting your desired Office 365 domain will direct you to the instructions page that details how to set up your DNS settings for the smooth functioning of Office 365. If you find a record with the name ‘_dmarc’ already present, you should edit that record rather than create a new one. It is critical because you cannot have multiple DMARC records.

Follow the Office 365 instructions to set up your DNS. Next, log in to your DNS provider and implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for the specific domain. You can also create a personalized DMARC record by using DMARC record generators provided by various service providers.

  • Wait for 72 hours

After setting up your Office 365 DMARC, you have to wait up to 72 hours to receive your initial DMARC reports. Generally, ISPs send one report per day, and you also have to contend with DNS caching. So it explains the waiting period of 72 hours for the first reports to trickle in.

Now, you have set up your DMARC Office 365.

The Role of DMARC?

The DMARC record is a text entry in your DNS record that informs the world about your email domain’s policy after verifying SPF and DKIM status. So, DMARC authenticates an email if SPF, DKIM, or both pass. It is also known as DMARC alignment. However, it is also possible for DMARC to fail despite SPF and DKIM passes.

Another functionality of your DMARC record is that it tells email servers to send XML reports to the reporting address listed in the record. It provides comprehensive information on how your emails move in the ecosystem. Besides, it also allows identifying every entity that uses your email domain.

Why Use DMARC?

Without DMARC, it can be challenging to identify the genuineness of an email. It enables domain owners to protect their domains from unauthorized use by malicious actors. In its absence, adversaries can misuse the domains of an organization for phishing attempts and spam on its customers and stakeholders through email spoofing. Thus, DMARC plays a vital role in helping an organization safeguard its reputation, maintain cordial relationships with all, and conduct business smoothly.

Benefits of DMARC Office 365

Finally, here are the benefits of DMARC summarized. All businesses using email for correspondence benefit by incorporating DMARC through the following advantages.

  • Robust Security: DMARC protects business networks from the ill effects of spam, phishing, email frauds, etc., by preventing unauthorized use of your email domain.
  • Better Visibility: DMARC Office 365 lets businesses know who or what is using their email domain to send emails.
  • Ensure Delivery: Implementing DMARC ensures delivery of genuine emails into the recipient’s inbox.
  • Enables Identity: DMARC allows easy identification of emails in the ever-growing world of DMARC-capable receivers.

Final Words

Businesses face a growing threat of malicious actors who generally use the email route to introduce spam and malware into network systems. Hence, securing the email domain is critical for all organizations. One of the best ways is to implement DMARC and add DMARC record Office 365 to your DNS.

DMARC prevents malicious actors from misusing your email domains for their nefarious activities. Thus, it also ensures that your genuine emails reach the recipient’s inbox. By explaining DMARC and how to set up DMARC Office 365, this article should prove helpful to all organizations relying on email as their primary correspondence channel.