DMARC Report Received from Mimecast: What You Need to Know
February 19, 2025 | 3 min read
Understanding DMARC Reports from Mimecast
Mimecast is a leading provider of email security solutions, offering services like email threat protection, encryption, and continuity. Organizations using Mimecast rely on its robust email security features to protect against phishing, spoofing, and other email-based attacks. To further ensure email authenticity and secure your domain, DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) plays a crucial role. DMARC reports from Mimecast provide critical insights into how recipient servers handle your emails, particularly by evaluating SPF and DKIM checks. Monitoring and acting on these reports helps protect your domain and improve email deliverability.
Key Components of Mimecast DMARC Reports:
1. Source IP Address: Displays the IP address from which Mimecast sends your emails. Monitoring this ensures that your emails originate from Mimecast’s authorized IPs, preventing unauthorized or malicious actors from using your domain for spoofing or phishing attacks.
2. DKIM Alignment Results: Verifies whether the DKIM signature aligns with the domain specified in the “From” header. Ensuring DKIM alignment is critical for passing DMARC checks, confirming email authenticity, and maintaining secure email delivery through Mimecast.
3. SPF Alignment Results: Checks if the sending IP address from Mimecast is authorized by your domain’s SPF record. SPF alignment ensures only authorized IPs can send emails on behalf of your domain, preventing unauthorized entities from impersonating your organization.
4. Disposition: Informs you how the recipient server handled the email—whether it was delivered, quarantined, or rejected—based on the DMARC policy settings defined for your domain.
5. Message Count: Displays the number of emails sent from a particular IP address, helping you track email volume and monitor any suspicious or unauthorized activity coming from your domain.
Automating DMARC Parsing for Mimecast
Parsing DMARC XML reports manually from Mimecast can be time-consuming, especially if you manage a large volume of emails. Automating this process with tools like Skysnag helps streamline the management of DMARC reports, allowing you to quickly identify and resolve issues related to email security and authentication.
– Data Aggregation Across Providers: If you use Mimecast along with other email services, Skysnag can aggregate DMARC reports from all platforms into a single, unified dashboard. This allows for easier monitoring of email authentication across different services and ensures consistent DMARC compliance.
– Visualizing Key Metrics: Skysnag transforms raw DMARC XML data from Mimecast into intuitive visual dashboards, highlighting key metrics such as DKIM/SPF pass rates, unauthorized email attempts, and top-sending IP addresses. This makes it easier to identify issues related to email security and deliverability, allowing you to take immediate corrective action.
– Automated Incident Response: Skysnag provides real-time alerts when emails fail DMARC checks (e.g., SPF or DKIM misalignment) on Mimecast’s network. These alerts allow you to take immediate action, such as updating DNS settings or blocking suspicious IP addresses, ensuring that email authentication remains intact.
– Forensic Reporting: Some DMARC reports offer forensic data, such as full email headers from failed messages. For Mimecast users, these detailed insights help diagnose why certain emails failed DMARC checks and enable you to improve your overall email security.
Ensuring Proper DMARC Alignment for Mimecast
To ensure that emails sent through Mimecast pass DMARC checks and are delivered successfully, it is essential that both DKIM and SPF are aligned with the domain used in the “From” header. Misalignment can cause emails to be quarantined or rejected by recipient servers, even if other checks pass. Proper DKIM and SPF alignment protects your domain from spoofing and phishing attacks and ensures better email deliverability.
Skysnag’s Custom Solutions for Mimecast:
– DKIM Key Management: Skysnag helps ensure that your DKIM keys used for Mimecast emails are properly aligned and up-to-date. If any DKIM misalignments or outdated keys are detected, Skysnag will alert you, allowing you to quickly resolve the issue and maintain DMARC compliance.
– SPF Flattening: If you use multiple email services along with Mimecast, SPF records can become complex and exceed DNS lookup limits. Skysnag automates SPF flattening, optimizing your SPF record to ensure that it remains within DNS lookup limits, preventing authentication failures.
– Policy Recommendations: Based on insights from your Mimecast DMARC reports, Skysnag can recommend policy adjustments, such as moving from “none” to stricter enforcement modes like “quarantine” or “reject.” This helps protect your domain from phishing and spoofing while ensuring legitimate emails are delivered securely.
By automating DMARC report parsing and providing tailored solutions for Mimecast users, tools like Skysnag help ensure that your emails are properly authenticated, securely delivered, and protected from unauthorized use, all while enhancing your domain’s reputation and email performance.
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