IT leaders advocate for stricter email authentication rules

New research indicates substantial support amongst IT decision-makers for expanding email authentication requirements, according to findings shared by EasyDMARC.

One year following Google and Yahoo's roll-out of email authentication measures for bulk senders, including the implementation of DMARC, 87% of IT leaders now support extending these requirements to further mitigate phishing and spam concerns. This insight was derived from surveying over 1,000 IT decision-makers globally.

The findings reveal that 77% of those who adopted new security measures within the last year report being driven by the policies introduced by Google and Yahoo. The study also highlights an increase in DMARC adoption, rising to 45% of organisations from 37% the previous year.

IT professionals report a growing confidence in their email security capabilities, with the proportion of those feeling "very confident" in combating phishing attacks rising by nine percentage points, reaching 36% from last year's 27%.

Increased awareness of email threat mitigation is attributed as a contributing factor. Prior to the mandates, only 29% of IT professionals knew of such authentication requirements.

The research underscores DMARC's effectiveness, noting that among organisations utilising the protocol, 81% believed it met expectations in reducing spam and phishing, while 15% stated it exceeded their expectations. Additionally, 85% deemed the initial mandates by Google and Yahoo necessary.

Gerasim Hovhannisyan, CEO & Co-founder of EasyDMARC, addressed the compelling outcomes of the survey: "These findings reaffirm what we often hear from customers- implementing DMARC delivers tangible benefits in security and trust. However, businesses need to go further. To fully protect against phishing and spoofing, organisations must move beyond basic implementation towards a 'p=reject' policy."

He further remarked on the precedent set by Google and Yahoo in improving cybersecurity practices: "Google and Yahoo have set a strong precedent, and have proven that influential providers can improve best practices through sensible, iterative protocol improvements. We must now as an industry convince businesses of their importance and ability to improve cybersecurity resilience."