Communicating Email Security Risks to Clients: A Guide for DMARC MSPs

Hackers are getting smarter, and let’s admit it, sometimes they do outsmart the expertise and experiences of Managed Service Providers who put their brains into plugging in protocols and technologies to be an armor against email risks.

According to a report by Deloitte, “the source of 91% of all cyber attacks is phishing email,” making email risk a genuine concern as it’s the weakest thread of an organization’s defensive yarn against malicious attacks. 

While there’s no silver bullet to mitigate email risks and protect one’s email infrastructure, your role as a Managed Service Provider becomes all the more important in fueling up your clients’ capabilities to reflect dominance when it comes to being swords against cybersecurity menaces. 

In this article, we’ll take you through ways you can foster a proactive approach to email security among your clients. 

How to Tell Your Clients They Need DMARC?

DMARC Illustration

1. Establish the Concept of ‘Threat Landscape’ In Their Heads 

Start from the very first step—don’t assume they already know about the growing cyber threats because it’s not their job to do so. It’s your part of responsibility, and that’s exactly why they have outsourced the work to you in the first place. 

Create reports and presentations and conduct a first-base meeting to show them how unsafe they are. Don’t mind scaring them out of their wits because that’s how they will comprehend the gravity of cybersecurity. 

Make them understand the technicalities of phishing, ransomware, malware, and the importance of DMARC setup. This should be followed by pulling out real-life examples, especially the ones where the targeted business ended up getting tangled in lawsuits and paying hefty ransoms or fines. 

2. Know Your Client (and Their Vulnerabilities) 

As much as we wish there was a one-size-fits-all strategy that applied to every client, cybersecurity is a complex domain. So, to convince them to build a culture of resilience, the first order of business is to understand the ins and outs of your client’s business and the common email risks that they could be subjected to. 

Remember, threat actors are getting more sophisticated and linearly managed- which means they keep a tab on their past victims and reattempt to prey on them. So you might even consider snooping into their history of cybersecurity attacks and how they handled them. 

Going a step ahead,  you can also regularly conduct security audits to make your clients aware of their vulnerabilities, as they can not only give you an idea of how secure your system is but also help you find new security loopholes and evaluate the effectiveness of your current security strategies. Don’t believe us? Research shows that the average score for a Cybersecurity Audit (CSA) is relatively high, with a mean score of the Index of 58 on a scale ranging from 1 to 100.

3. Address the Consequences of Ignoring Email Security 

Have you told your clients yet that they can’t underestimate the financial impact of a cyberattack? According to Statista, as of 2023, the global average cost per data breach amounted to 4.45 million USD.

As an MSP, it is upon your shoulders to inform your clients about these risks and encourage them to make strategic investments to alleviate email risks and create a sound security posture. After all, no organization can afford to suffer financial loss along with reputation damage, business disruption, and other legal ramifications that data breaches bring along. 

4. Explain the Risks of Email Phishing

Phishing Illustration by Hacker9

Phishing remains one of the most prevalent ways for attackers to deploy malware or ransomware; no wonder comprehensive training and know-how to evade these attacks has now become non-negotiable. But is there a way to level up your security training?

To spread awareness about these attacks among your clients and their employees, provide training materials and information on phishing, vishing and smishing attacks – along with the risks associated with them and how to detect them easily and prevent them for successfully defrauding victims.

By integrating the latest phishing trends in your client and employee training programs, you not only acquaint your clients and workforce with the expanding threat landscape but also encourage them to keep their assets safe.

See also: 8 Ways to Boost Your Team’s Cybersecurity Awareness

5. Emphasize Regulatory Compliance 

Before you go on to convince your clients about email security, make sure that they are familiar with standards and regulatory requirements laid out by authorities like GDPR and their significance in dodging cyberattacks.

As a trusted Managed Service Provider, you can help your clients navigate to your services communicating the importance for choosing an MSSP platform that is GDPR, ISO 270001 and SOC Type 2 compliant. Failing to comply with these standards could compromise sensitive data. 

6. Suggest Robust Security Measures

If you were given two choices to tackle a problem—following a solution-driven approach or only brooding on the problem—which one would you choose? As an expert in domain and email security, you should be aware that a solution-driven approach trumps its counterparts and can be leveraged to empower your clients to take charge of the situation.

So, instead of leaving them overwhelmed with all the newly learned information about the threat landscape and its vulnerabilities, you can suggest comprehensive domain security strategies to address email risks.

That’s not all! Remember we talked about tailoring your cybersecurity approach as per your client? In that vein, make sure that these strategies meet your client’s needs and industry requirements, thereby offering a holistic and customized approach.  

7. Showcase Your Expertise in the Domain 

So far, we have established that building a rapport with your clients and convincing them to invest in email security is no easy feat, especially if it’s their first time doing so. Addressing their apprehensions and establishing trust might be challenging, but you can crack the code by showcasing your expertise in the domain of cybersecurity.

Informative blogs, social media posts, podcasts, and newsletters are some of the ways you can provide value to your clients, spread awareness about the latest cybersecurity trends and best practices, and help them build a sound security posture. 

8. Demonstrate the Importance of Managed Services 

Are your clients caught up in the tug of war between constantly evolving cybersecurity threats and complex web of security efforts? As a Managed Service Provider, you could be the knight in shining armor for your clients!

To help your clients win the war against email-based attacks, you can start by demonstrating how you can help them streamline their cybersecurity efforts, minimize the impact of cybersecurity and other email risks, and maintain operational continuity.

Monetizing DMARC for Max Profit with PowerDMARC’s MSSP Partner Program

PowerDMARC offers a comprehensive range of Managed Services for your clients and their unique vulnerabilities. PowerDMARC’s ​​DMARC MSP / MSSP partnership program can help you tackle prevalent challenges such as domain spoofing, lack of visibility on sending sources, poor email deliverability, etc., both for yourself and your clients – while having a stable parallel revenue stream. 

Key Benefits: 

  1. Hosted DMARC, SPF, DKIM, MTA-STS, TLS-RPT and BIMI
  2. Native multi-tenancy and multi-language support 
  3. Full platform and Marketing material that can be whitelabelled 
  4. API support 
  5. Ability to create your own customized subscriptions 
  6. Automated billing reconciliations 
  7. Free trial 
  8. Dedicated onboarding training and support, along with access to self-teaching videos and tutorials on the portal
  9. Real-time alerts configuration for account and user activities 

PowerDMARC helps you become the domain security expert that your clients desire, and sell our solutions at maximum profit margins. Sign up today to get free access to your DMARC MSP dashboard!

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  3. How To Hack An Email Account? – 4 Effective Ways To Hack Email
  4. How to find IP address of the email sender – using header?
  5. Phishing SMS 2FA codes – How hackers bypass two-factor authentication
  6. 9 Tips for Protecting Your Company and Consumer Data
  7. What is the Most Secure Way to Store Passwords?
  8. 7 Key Strategies to Prevent Data Loss in Your Organization
  9. 5 Essential Cybersecurity Tips to Protect Your Small Business from Cyber Attacks

Ashwin S

A cybersecurity enthusiast at heart with a passion for all things tech. Yet his creativity extends beyond the world of cybersecurity. With an innate love for design, he's always on the lookout for unique design concepts.