Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) and DMARC.

Red Sift has published a report on the adoption of two email security measures, Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) and Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI):

“First and foremost, BIMI is the future of email security as it strengthens our email ecosystem as a whole. To qualify for BIMI, an organization’s sending and apex domains must be DMARC compliant (a policy of quarantine 100 or reject). Obtaining a VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) from an approved Certificate Authority (CA) such as Entrust is the best way to maximize the reach of BIMI for logo display in email clients. As a result, BIMI with VMC secures visual trust in email.

DMARC and BIMI: mutually reinforcing.

“It’s because of the email authentication requirements of DMARC that the widespread adoption of BIMI helps to improve the health of the entire email ecosystem. If more organizations adopt BIMI, it means more organizations within the ecosystem become DMARC protected, and the more difficult it is for cybercriminals to carry out domain impersonation (spoofing), a precursor to many cyberattacks.”

The researchers found that “[a]mong 2,380 domains owned by the largest publicly traded companies in the largest economies in the world, 30.4% are BIMI-ready.” Additionally, 49.9% of Fortune 500 companies in the US have DMARC in place to implement BIMI.