dmarcs.com

Day: July 16, 2025

  • DMARC Implementation for a Gulf-Based Financial Services Firm

    DMARC Implementation for a Gulf-Based Financial Services Firm

    DMARC Implementation for a Gulf-Based Financial Services Firm

    The Problem

    Clients were getting fake emails. Some looked like payment requests. Others mimicked internal notifications. A few nearly succeeded. One came close to redirecting funds from a key commercial client. The company’s name was being used to defraud customers, and there was no technical control in place to stop it.

    Internally, the team believed SPF and DKIM were enough. But records were broken, unused tools still had access, and dozens of third-party platforms were sending emails on behalf of the domain. No one had full visibility. No one owned the problem.

    The damage wasn’t theoretical. It was active. Clients were reporting incidents. Legal was involved. Support teams were flooded with queries. Sales was losing trust with high-value accounts.

    The Objective

    • Regain control over the company’s email infrastructure.
    • Eliminate all forms of domain misuse.
    • Protect operations without disrupting live mail systems.
    • Achieve full DMARC enforcement with precision and accountability.

    What We Found

    • Over 30 domains and subdomains in use
    • Nine separate tools sending transactional or marketing emails
    • Multiple SPF records that failed lookup limits
    • DKIM selectors reused across platforms and regions
    • No DMARC policy configured on any domain
    • No team assigned to email authentication

    Some platforms were still authenticating with long-expired keys. Others were using generic shared configurations across different customers. The company had no idea which tools were active, which were dormant, and which were being abused.

    Meanwhile, malicious senders were hitting inboxes using the company’s name with no resistance.

    The Fix

    Step 1: Visibility

    We implemented a p=none DMARC policy and routed reports to a centralized analytics platform. Within days, we saw the problem in numbers:

    • Over 1,800 spoofed emails per day
    • At least four unauthorized senders relaying mail from offshore IPs
    • One legitimate internal tool misconfigured and failing authentication silently

    Step 2: Triage and Repair

    We rebuilt SPF records from scratch and removed excess includes. DKIM keys were regenerated and aligned per sender. Tools that failed authentication were either fixed or disconnected. Shadow IT systems were blocked at the DNS level.

    We coordinated with every external vendor to validate sending domains, update configurations, and confirm compliance.

    Step 3: Controlled Enforcement

    After four weeks of monitoring and cleanup, we moved to p=quarantine. Spoofed messages were now diverted or flagged. Business email traffic remained stable. No delivery disruptions.

    After two more weeks of clean reporting, we enforced p=reject.

    Results

    • Spoofed emails dropped from 1,800 per day to under 10
    • Fraudulent messages that once reached customer inboxes were now blocked at the gateway
    • Internal teams reduced email-related support cases by more than half
    • Third-party vendors were brought under strict control, with documented accountability
    • IT security took formal ownership of email infrastructure for the first time

    The firm avoided a serious fraud incident. One client reported they would have followed a fake payment instruction had it not failed delivery under the new DMARC policy.

    What This Changed

    Email security was no longer buried under infrastructure tasks. It became part of risk management. For the first time, the company had provable control over its public-facing communications.

    This wasn’t just about stopping phishing. It was about restoring credibility, reducing legal exposure, and proving to clients that their trust wasn’t misplaced.

    Most organizations don’t act on email abuse until something breaks. This one nearly did. DMARC wasn’t a technical upgrade. It was a correction of ownership. Without it, anyone could impersonate the business. With it, that door was shut permanently.

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  • The Hidden Cost of Not Having DMARC in Place

    The Hidden Cost of Not Having DMARC in Place

    The Hidden Cost of Not Having DMARC in Place

    Most organizations deploy firewalls, antivirus, and endpoint controls. Yet they leave their email domains unprotected. Without DMARC enforcement, your domain can be spoofed by anyone, at any time, with no alert, no audit trail, and no consequence. Except to your reputation, your customers, and your bottom line.

    Attackers Don’t Need Access to Your Systems. Just Your Domain Name.

    DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) prevents attackers from sending emails that appear to come from your domain. Without it, your brand becomes a free resource for phishing campaigns, business email compromise (BEC), and invoice fraud.

    Spoofing does not require access to your infrastructure. It exploits trust in your domain name. When DMARC is missing or misconfigured, threat actors use it to deliver emails that look like they came from your CEO, finance team, or support desk. These messages bypass traditional email filters because they appear to come from a legitimate domain.

    The Financial Impact Isn’t Hypothetical

    BEC losses are well documented. According to the FBI IC3, global BEC-related fraud exceeded 50 billion dollars across reported cases. In nearly all of them, domain spoofing was the first step.

    One spoofed invoice to the wrong customer can result in six or seven figure losses. In regulated sectors like finance and healthcare, this also brings audit failures and compliance violations.

    When your domain is used to phish third parties, such as partners, suppliers, or the public, you may not face immediate legal action. But you will face brand erosion. Trust lost in email is hard to recover.

    Internal Risk Multiplies Without Visibility

    It is not just your customers at risk. Internal users are common targets. Executives receive spoofed emails impersonating board members. Finance teams get urgent wire requests. HR teams are tricked into sending sensitive employee data.

    Compliance Pressure Is Growing

    Data protection laws in the UAE (PDPL), Europe (GDPR), and elsewhere are increasingly clear. Organizations are expected to implement appropriate technical controls to protect communication channels. DMARC is now considered one of those basic controls.

    Insurance providers are also tightening their requirements. Cyber liability policies increasingly require evidence of email authentication. Inadequate DMARC posture can result in higher premiums or denied claims after an incident.

    Auditors and regulators will not accept ignorance. If your domain was used in a phishing attack and you had no DMARC enforcement or monitoring in place, the liability shifts.

    Missed Opportunities for Brand Protection

    Beyond security, DMARC protects your brand identity in the inbox. Major email providers use DMARC enforcement to determine whether your logo is displayed through BIMI, whether your emails are trusted, and whether they land in the inbox or the spam folder.
    Without enforcement, legitimate marketing and customer support emails are more likely to be flagged, delayed, or blocked. Your deliverability suffers, and so does customer experience.

    The Cost of Doing Nothing

    Organizations that delay DMARC often cite complexity, resource constraints, or fear of disrupting email flow. These are solvable problems. The longer you wait, the more exposed you are.

    Spoofing attacks rarely make headlines. But they quietly drain trust, money, and operational resources. The clean-up cost, both financial and reputational, is always higher than prevention.

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