Summary
Enriching DMARC reports with user-level data is crucial for improved domain enforcement. This involves integrating various data sources, including ESPs, ISPs, CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, user feedback loops, geolocation data, threat intelligence feeds, deliverability testing tools, and reputation data. These integrations aim to identify individual user behavior, track email engagement, detect anomalies, prevent phishing attacks, and improve email security. Tools like Google Postmaster Tools, Microsoft ATP, and Cisco's email security products enhance this process, but challenges remain in obtaining user-domain mapping, data availability, and ensuring data privacy.
Key findings
- Data Integration is Key: Integrating DMARC data with multiple external sources (CRM, threat feeds, etc.) provides a more complete picture.
- User Feedback is Valuable: Feedback loops and complaint reports help identify specific user-related deliverability issues.
- Threat Intelligence Enhances Security: Combining DMARC with threat intelligence and SIEM systems enables proactive threat detection.
- Enhanced Domain Enforcement: Geolocation data, reputation data, and deliverability testing tools aid in identifying suspicious activity and improving email placement.
- Vendor Specific Solutions Exist: Tools like Microsoft ATP and Cisco offer built-in enrichment and analysis capabilities.
Key considerations
- Data Availability and Accuracy: Access to reliable user-level data from various sources is essential, but data availability may vary.
- Integration Complexity: Integrating diverse data sources and systems can be technically challenging and require significant effort.
- Data Privacy and Compliance: Handling user-level data requires strict adherence to privacy regulations and implementation of appropriate security measures.
- Cost of Implementation: Implementing and maintaining enriched DMARC reporting systems can incur significant costs.
- Addressing the User-Domain Gap: Standard DMARC reports lack user-domain mapping, necessitating additional data sources or solutions to bridge this gap.
What email marketers say
10 marketer opinions
Enriching DMARC reports with user-level data enhances domain enforcement by providing deeper insights into email deliverability issues and security threats. This can be achieved by integrating DMARC data with various data sources such as ESPs, ISPs, CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, user feedback, geolocation data, threat intelligence feeds, deliverability testing tools, and reputation data. The goal is to identify individual user behavior, track email engagement, detect anomalies, and prevent phishing attacks, ultimately improving email security and deliverability.
Key opinions
- Data Integration: Integrating DMARC data with various sources like CRM, marketing automation, and internal user data allows for a more comprehensive understanding of deliverability issues.
- User Feedback: Gathering user feedback through feedback loops and complaint reports provides insights into specific user-related problems and helps refine email strategies.
- Threat Detection: Combining DMARC data with threat intelligence feeds and SIEM systems helps identify malicious actors, prevent phishing attacks, and detect anomalies in email traffic.
- Geolocation Insights: Enriching DMARC reports with geolocation data helps identify suspicious activity originating from unexpected locations.
- Reputation Data: Using reputation data from blocklists provides additional context about sending sources and helps prevent spam-related issues.
Key considerations
- Data Availability: The availability of user-level data from ESPs, ISPs, and other sources may vary, impacting the completeness of enriched DMARC reports.
- Data Privacy: Integrating user-level data into DMARC reports requires careful consideration of data privacy regulations and user consent.
- System Integration: Integrating DMARC reporting with various data sources and systems may require technical expertise and significant effort.
- Actionable Insights: The enriched DMARC data must be analyzed effectively to generate actionable insights and drive meaningful improvements in email security and deliverability.
- Cost: There may be costs associated with implementing and maintaining the systems and data sources required to enrich DMARC reports.
Marketer view
Email marketer from GlockApps responds that integrating DMARC data with email deliverability testing tools allows marketers to assess the impact of DMARC policies on email placement and identify any potential issues with inboxing rates, ensuring optimal deliverability.
26 Nov 2023 - GlockApps.com
Marketer view
Email marketer from Valimail shares how enriching DMARC reports can involve correlating DMARC data with other data sources (like CRM or marketing automation platforms) to identify individual user behavior, track email engagement, and gain deeper insights into campaign performance.
16 May 2025 - Valimail.com
What the experts say
3 expert opinions
Enriching DMARC reports with user-level data can be achieved by using feedback loops (FBLs) to identify and suppress users who mark emails as spam. Integrating internal data, like CRM or help desk information, can connect authentication failures to specific user accounts, facilitating targeted remediation. However, the fundamental challenge lies in obtaining user-domain mapping since standard DMARC reports lack this data, highlighting the need for external data sources or integration methods.
Key opinions
- Feedback Loops: FBLs are a key mechanism for identifying users who mark emails as spam, allowing for their suppression and improvement of sender reputation.
- Internal Data Integration: Integrating CRM and help desk data enables connecting authentication failures with specific customer accounts for targeted remediation.
- Data Source Challenge: Standard DMARC reports lack user-domain mapping, necessitating the use of external data sources or alternative integration methods to enrich the reports.
Key considerations
- Data Availability: Access to reliable feedback loops and comprehensive internal data is crucial for effective DMARC enrichment.
- Integration Complexity: Integrating internal data with DMARC reports can be technically complex and require significant effort.
- User Privacy: Handling user-level data requires careful consideration of privacy regulations and the implementation of appropriate data protection measures.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks questions how the project matches users to ESPs or DMARC domains, given that standard DMARC reports lack user-level data, seeking clarification on the data sources for user-domain mapping.
29 Aug 2021 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that feedback loops (FBLs) can provide user-level data by identifying users who mark emails as spam, enabling senders to suppress those users and improve their sender reputation, leading to better DMARC enforcement. This helps identify and remove problematic recipients from mailing lists.
3 Apr 2023 - Word to the Wise
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
DMARC reporting provides valuable feedback on email authentication, helping domain owners identify spoofing and unauthorized activity. While RFC7489 aggregate reports offer summarized authentication results, tools like Google Postmaster Tools offer insights into sender reputation and spam rates. Microsoft ATP and Cisco's email security products enrich DMARC data with user-level information and behavioral analysis to detect and mitigate threats like phishing and malware.
Key findings
- DMARC Basics: DMARC reporting provides essential feedback on email authentication practices.
- Aggregate Reporting: RFC7489 aggregate reports offer summarized data about authentication results, showing trends.
- Google's Insights: Google Postmaster Tools provides insights into sender reputation and spam rates specifically for Gmail users.
- Advanced Threat Protection: Microsoft ATP enriches email security data with user-level information to combat phishing and malware.
- Behavioral Analysis: Cisco's email security products use behavioral analysis with DMARC data to detect anomalies and respond to threats.
Key considerations
- Tool Specificity: Insights from tools like Google Postmaster Tools are specific to their respective platforms (e.g., Gmail).
- Integration Effort: Integrating solutions like Microsoft ATP or Cisco email security products might require significant setup and configuration.
- Data Interpretation: Effectively interpreting and acting upon the data from DMARC reports and related tools requires expertise.
Technical article
Documentation from Microsoft explains how Microsoft Exchange Online Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) enriches email security data with user-level information to help identify and mitigate phishing attempts, malware, and other email-borne threats.
26 Oct 2022 - Microsoft.com
Technical article
Documentation from RFC7489 (the DMARC standard) explains that DMARC aggregate reports (RUA) provide summarized data about email authentication results, which can be used to identify authentication failures and potential abuse. While not directly user-level, this data informs domain owners about authentication trends.
31 Aug 2022 - RFC Editor
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