Information Technology industry
Overview
A Statista report states that the total number of emails sent and received in a single day in 2021 is close to 320 billion. Yes, you heard that right. If there’s one industry that sends and receives most of these emails, it is the information technology industry. Emails are a pivotal part of the IT industry. Everyday crucial data is exchanged between various companies and clients. Given how emails are so widely used in the IT industry, it becomes a frequent space for cyberattacks.
The IT industry is the most preyed upon by cyber attackers because of its vast databases and subsidiaries. According to new research, the IT industry is the most vulnerable industry having more than 1000 employees.
According to Check Point Research’s (CPR) analysis, the companies most likely to get phished were IT companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Yahoo. More than 70% of the attacks that occurred were through emails. This only goes to show how important DMARC is when it comes to the safety of these IT companies. Vast repositories of data that these companies hold act as sugar cubes for the attacker. Credit-card information, usernames, and passwords are the most common types of data stolen by phishers.
According to an emerging report, cybercrime is going to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. If we are to prevent or downscale the damages, we need to ensure that cybersecurity measures like DMARC protocol are adopted universally and specifically by the IT industry.
IT industry Data Breaches Stats
- On January 22, 2020, a customer support database holding over 280 million Microsoft customer records was left unprotected on the web (IdentityForce).
- On April 14, 2020, the credentials of over 500,000 Zoom teleconferencing accounts were found for sale on the dark web (IdentityForce).
- On August 20, 2020, Researchers at Comparitech uncovered an unsecured database with 235 million Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube user profiles exposed online belonging to the defunct social media data broker, Deep Social (IdentityForce).
- On November 5, 2020, a database for Mashable.com containing 1,852,595 records of staff, users, and subscribers was leaked by hackers (IdentityForce).
- On December 10, 2020, an undisclosed number of users of the audio streaming service Spotify had their passwords resetted after a software vulnerability exposed account information (IdentityForce).
IT Industry DMARC Adoption
According to a study conducted by San Francisco-based anti-phishing company Valimail, only 10% of the world’s IT companies are protected from cyberattacks, including phishing, spoofing, etc. This is an eye-opener for the industry, which loses more than $66 million every year to these attacks.
Only 23% of the companies listed in Fortune 500 have some form of DMARC policy implemented. Most of these companies have an IT background.
How Can DMARC Help?
DMARC (Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is an email authentication standard or protocol that determines whether an email is authentic or not. It relies on SPF and DKIM, two other protocols, to decide the authentication status of an email.
For detailed information, read more on What is DMARC?
DMARC is crucial for the IT industry since it is the most vulnerable industry when it comes to cyberattacks. DMARC ensures that the industry isn’t harmed by spoofing or phishing since it provides visibility of an email’s original source and not the source it claims to be from.
An email sender trying to impersonate a reputed IT company will be blocked if the recipient has DMARC already implemented. It is the only effective solution to ensuring that your employees, business partners, supply chains, or other end recipients do not get spoofed by an attacker using your domain.
You can set up DMARC on your domain using EmailAuth’s DMARC Record Generator. The EmailAuth dashboard completely automates the DMARC setup process, making it easier to choose who is allowed to send emails on your domain’s behalf and keep track of your enforcement policies. To monitor and verify your DMARC records, use EmailAuth’s DMARC Record Checker.
Apart from providing companies and organizations with email security and complete control of their email domains via DMARC, EmaiAuth has other advantages. Head to Benefits of DMARC to read more about them.