Red Sift and Entrust recently announced an expanded partnership to simplify and streamline the adoption of strong email sender authentication based on Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) standards. To find out more, VMblog reached out to industry expert, Rahul Powar,
Founder and CEO of global cybersecurity company Red Sift.
VMblog: Before we begin, can
you give us some background on Red Sift and the customer problem you are
solving?
Rahul Powar: Red Sift's
mission is to democratize the technology essential for cybersecurity. This
means making products which are user-centric and address real threat vectors
within the cyber and email security space. Our core technology enabler is the
Red Sift Open Cloud, a data analysis platform purpose-built for the challenges
of cybersecurity.
Using this
platform and the data extraction and analysis it enables, we've created two key
products: OnDMARC and OnINBOX. These SaaS applications work together to close
the net on the phishing problem by blocking outbound phishing attacks and
analyzing the security of inbound communications for company-wide email threat
intelligence.
VMblog: You recently
announced a partnership with Entrust to bring BIMI standards for verified
logos in branded emails. Can you tell us more about what that means and
why it is important?
Powar: Recently,
Google announced its support for Brand Indicators for Message Identification
(BIMI), an emerging email standard which allows businesses to attach validated
registered logos to Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting (DMARC)
authenticated emails. DMARC is an email authentication protocol which protects
domains from impersonation. When properly configured, DMARC uses existing
protocols DKIM and SPF to ensure that emails sent using a company's domain are
legitimate, preventing hackers from impersonating their brand and damaging
their reputation.
Leading up to
the Google announcement surrounding BIMI, Red Sift was already partnering with
Entrust to successfully guide a number of our OnDMARC customers through the
Google pilot program to BIMI certification. However, to qualify for BIMI, a
company's domain must be DMARC compliant and its logo must be trademarked. The
company must also have a VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) issued by an approved
Certification Authority (CA). Now that Google has officially announced support for BIMI, we are continuing our work
with Entrust to ensure companies and brands have a simple way to implement this
emerging email standard by combining our proprietary OnDMARC platform with
Entrust VMCs.
Email is
essential for any business to promote their band. But the way people use email
is quickly changing, making it work harder for businesses' goals and needs. That's where BIMI comes in.
Through BIMI, businesses and organizations can display their registered logo
automatically alongside any DMARC authenticated emails they send. For the
customer, this means trust and authenticity and for brands this means a useful
(and increasingly necessary) tool for improving ROI.
VMblog: BIMI standards seem
to be on the rise with Google having recently announced support for BIMI. Why is now the right time for BIMI?
Powar: In 2021,
almost 320 billion emails were sent every day. And this number is only expected
to rise 17.5% (roughly 376 billion emails) by 2025. Email isn't going anywhere.
But as with anything, the evolution of how businesses use this channel is
inevitable, making it work harder for their goals and needs. As part of this evolution
comes BIMI.
VMblog: What are the
benefits of BIMI and why do companies need to use it?
Powar: Any good
email marketing strategy will involve tweaking subject lines, cleaning email
lists and curating email content. This is done with the goal of increasing open
rates, boosting click throughs, swerving spam complaints and keeping bounce
rates low. But while these are good practices, it's likely the widespread
adoption of globally-recognized standards like DMARC and the benefits which
come with these (such as BIMI) will ultimately make the real difference in
keeping our email ecosystem robust for years to come.
Every
organization can benefit from BIMI. Bigger brands can implement BIMI standards
to ensure strong email authentication and create a deep brand experience with
their customers. Smaller businesses can implement BIMI standards to add strong
email authentication, increase their interaction, and more effectively compete
with bigger brands.
VMblog: Why do you think
marketing professionals will care about BIMI?
Powar: Recently, we
ran a survey in partnership with Entrust of over 1,000 participants across the
US and UK to assess the impact that logo visibility through BIMI has on email
open rates, brand recall, consumer confidence and buying behavior.
Here's what
we found: by implementing BIMI we saw increased open rates by 21% and increased
brand recall by 18%. Our data also showed that the use of BIMI increased
consumer confidence in the legitimacy of an email by 90%. Basically, seeing
that brand logo in their inbox legitimized the e-mail and led to increased
consumer confidence and therefore, increased purchase rates.
VMblog: What did your
research reveal regarding buying behaviors, and how can the information
help email marketers and their brands?
Powar: The survey also
showed an increase in purchase likelihood of 34% as a result of logo visibility
through BIMI. Prospects were more likely to purchase when brand logos were
displayed in the inbox. Furthermore, the study found that when looking at how
Gen Z respondents decided to spend their money, not deploying BIMI negatively
impacted purchasing decisions by 28%.
VMblog: Email phishing
attacks are on the rise and have long been an issue in cybersecurity. What
is Red Sift doing to address this?
Powar: At Red Sift,
we talk a lot about how our mission is to democratize the technology essential
for cybersecurity. In short, make it accessible for everyone. And there's a
specific reason for this, namely that the problems which arise from incorrect
email security configuration don't just impact IT departments, they impact
entire businesses.
Over 90% of
cyber attacks start with a phishing email. These are becoming more
sophisticated by the day, so it's vital that businesses are gearing up to adopt
DMARC. But out of the 47 million domains we've analyzed over the past few
years, only 1.5% are fully DMARC compliant. At Red Sift, we offer OnDMARC, a
DMARC tool that when correctly implemented for your domain(s), can stop
spoofing attacks and shut down email impersonation.
VMblog: Finally, what's in
store for Red Sift in the future?
Powar: With Google's
recent announcement of their support for BIMI, we're focused now on helping
businesses maximize on this opportunity for brand awareness, and drive the
adoption of DMARC in the wider email ecosystem. Partnered with Entrust, we've
already guided a number of customers through the BIMI pilot program and to date
have enabled the sending of more than 100 million VMC certified emails. We'll
continue to assess the landscape and create the necessary products to protect businesses
of all sizes against threat vectors in the email and cybersecurity space.
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