DMARC and PCI Regulations 2025
Looking for ways to keep your email protected from scammers? Or perhaps you’re here to learn how to stay compliant with the new PCI DSS requirements!
Before we dive into the new compliance regulations, it is important to understand what DMARC is!
DMARC is essentially a shield for your emails, making sure that the only emails you receive are legitimate and safeguarding your business from potential phishing attacks! DMARC, however, doesn’t work alone. It works alongside SPF and DKIM to verify the email authenticity. If the email does not pass the initial checks from SPF and DKIM, then DMARC will decide its fate. It will either allow it, send the email to spam or reject it entirely.Â
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Here is a visual showing the workings of DMARC in more detail:
What are the benefits of DMARC?
- Prevents email spoofing and phishing attacks that use your domain.
- Strengthens protection from BEC scams (business email compromise.)
- Â Customers and employees only receive authenticated emails from your domain.
- Authenticated emails are less likely to be flagged as spam mail.
- Helps to identify potential threats.
- Supports compliance with GDPR and PCI DSS.
- Lowers your risk of a data breach and financial loss for a phishing scam.
PCI Requirement 2025:
With cybercriminals becoming more advanced and more targeted towards the financial sector, The payment card industry (PCI) has tightened its regulations and will implement a DMARC requirement by March 31st. The DSS also recommends that “anti-phishing controls are applied across an entity’s entire organisation.” (for advice around phishing tackle give a member of our team a call.)Â
Who will be affected?
In the PCI DSS v. 4.0.1 section 5.4.1 requirement, all organisations, including merchants, must implement DMARC for their domains to verify the authenticity of the emails sent on behalf of their brands. PCI aims to reduce the risk of cybercriminals impersonating organisations to deceive their customers into disclosing sensitive information.
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Deploying DMARC:
The PCI regulations do not come into full force until March 2025, however, it is never too early to set up your project and start protecting your domain. A good place to begin would be to use a domain checker to see your current SPF and DKIM records. For more information about getting started with DMARC and protecting your organisation from cybercriminals be sure to send us a message or give a member of our team a call today!