Poor DMARC implementation leaves companies vulnerable to threats

Only 61 percent of manufacturing businesses have adopted DMARC, with 19 percent of the total manufacturers analyzed having adopted the most stringent 'p=reject' DMARC policy.

New research from email security provider EasyDMARC, which surveyed almost 5,000 global manufacturing companies, finds 43 percent of those with DMARC use a low-security DMARC policy that allows suspicious emails to reach inboxes but enables reporting on such activity.

Almost a third (31 percent) of the domains opt for a 'p=quarantine' policy which moves emails to the junk folder, allowing users to decide if they are indeed untrustworthy.

Gerasim Hovhannisyan, CEO and co-founder of EasyDMARC, says, "It is deeply concerning that despite the rise in cyber attacks within the manufacturing sector, the majority of top manufacturing companies remain unprotected against the growing threat of phishing and spoofing. While it is encouraging that well over half of manufacturers have implemented DMARC, it is still concerning that nearly half (43 percent) have adopted a policy that offers very little protection. This negligence ultimately places the global manufacturing industry at grave risk, as we have seen with the increasing frequency of cyber incidents."

The manufacturing sector has rapidly transformed in recent years, shifting from isolated programs to interconnected software systems leading to increased connectivity and data transparency. While this increasing interconnectivity is great for things like productivity, it also increases security vulnerabilities. Indeed, The World Economic Forum has recently identified manufacturing as the most targeted industry for cyberattacks over three consecutive years.

"As manufacturers continue to embrace digital transformation, IT teams must proactively implement robust cybersecurity measures to counter the increasing cyber risks," adds Hovhannisyan. "In this digital age, DMARC remains our best defense against the growing capabilities of cyber criminals, who now use tools like AI to make scams more sophisticated and frequent."

You can find out more on the EasyDMARC site.

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