DigiCert, Inc., the provider of TLS/SSL, IoT and other PKI solutions, and Valimail, the provider of identity-based anti-phishing solutions, announce that they are partnering to help companies prepare for Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI), a new standard currently in pilot that allows companies to display a verified logo in emails with a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC).
“DigiCert is pleased to partner with Valimail to support pilots that advance the BIMI email security standard with VMCs,” said DigiCert Senior Director of Business Development Dean Coclin. “We anticipate growing demand for digital certificates displaying verified logos in email and are developing scalable solutions to help companies be ready on day one.”
Making the ecosystem more secure
“BIMI is a huge step forward for email marketing, and when combined with DMARC enforcement it will help make the entire ecosystem more secure,” said Steve Mock, VP of Business Development for Valimail. “We’re very proud to be working with DigiCert to create a one-stop shop for companies to make themselves BIMI-ready.”
A major BIMI pilot with Yahoo has been underway for the past year, and Google has recently announced plans to launch a BIMI pilot in 2020. Upcoming BIMI pilots are expected to require VMCs for participants. DigiCert issued the first VMC for a domain that sends email at scale to CNN in October 2019.
Automated certificate management
DigiCert and Valimail are working together to establish a streamlined experience for companies
DigiCert and Valimail are working together to establish a streamlined experience for companies to enforce Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC), an email authentication, policy and reporting protocol, and receive VMCs, both essential steps for BIMI compliance.
DigiCert’s platform, together with regional staffing and expertise, enable fast, scalable and automated certificate management. The Valimail platform makes DMARC compliance faster and easier, and also offers an automated way for customers to manage BIMI configuration.
VMCs provide the following benefits for early adopter organisations:
- Long term, ensure customers see their logo in their inbox — even before they open the email.
- Provide an additional layer of protection against identity-targeted attacks through DMARC compliance.
- Deliver a more authentic, recognisable and unified brand experience from email to conversion.
- Distinguish one's messaging from the clutter.
- Improve deliverability and open rates by up to 10%.
Trustworthy inbox experience
DMARC enforcement is a key tool in companies’ battles against growing amounts of email phishing campaigns. DMARC gives companies visibility into who is sending emails from their domains, and gives them the ability to control which of those services or servers are allowed to do so. With an enforcement policy, unauthorised senders using the domain are automatically blocked by most receiving mail servers in the world today.
VMCs enable companies using DMARC to place a verified, trademarked logo next to the ‘sender’ field in customers’ inboxes. Developed by the AuthIndicators Working Group, the BIMI pilot program is intended to create a more trustworthy inbox experience for all email users worldwide through increasing the use of authentication to reduce email fraud.
Localised security standards
DigiCert is the issuer of digital certificates, with a global presence and highly scalable infrastructure that makes it the top choice for emerging global and localised security standards using cryptography to authenticate identities and encrypt information online.
DigiCert is supporting BIMI pilots in anticipation of a broad offering in its DigiCert CertCentral® TLS Manager
DigiCert is supporting BIMI pilots in anticipation of a broad offering in its DigiCert CertCentral® TLS Manager, available in 11 languages and nine currencies, later this year. DigiCert was recently named 2020 Global Company of the Year in the TLS certificate market by Frost & Sullivan, in recognition of its strong market leadership in its growth, supporting the adoption of new standards and continually innovating with the most modern public key infrastructure (PKI) technology.
Announcing additional developments
Valimail is a pioneer in the DMARC space. This pioneering zero-trust identity-based anti-phishing company offers the only complete, cloud-native platform for validating and authenticating sender identity.
It provides the most complete, effective visibility tool for interpreting DMARC reports, with the highest success rate among customers for achieving DMARC enforcement. It is also the provider of DMARC services to Microsoft 365 customers, and a growing DMARC vendor. Valimail and DigiCert are continuing to build on their partnership and will announce additional developments and milestones in the coming months.
