PRNewswire, September 12, 2022 — SAN FRANCISCO Apple has joined the increasing group of email infrastructure firms supporting Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI), a concerted industry effort to allow email inboxes like Apple Mail to show brand logos next to authenticated correspondence, securely, at scale, and in a uniform way.
Email inboxes all over the world can now display sender-designated emblems for authorised messages thanks to BIMI's safe, standardised infrastructure. Additionally, it has safeguards to stop thieves from falsely posing as senders. For instance, a bank might utilise BIMI to select which images are displayed across various email clients, allowing the bank control over brand exposure and spoofing protection, and displaying its logo next to authorised messages sent from its domain.
By using additional authentication to decrease email fraud, the AuthIndicators Working Group (bimigroup.org), a vendor-neutral committee of businesses, is establishing the BIMI standard and aiming to give all email users a richer, more reliable inbox experience.
The Working Group commends Apple for including BIMI in its upcoming releases of macOS Ventura and iOS 16. Google, Fastmail, MailChimp, Proofpoint, Twilio, Validity, Valimail, and Yahoo are among the working group's members.
With 58.4% of the desktop client market share, Apple's commitment to BIMI will improve the email experience for its projected 850 million email users. Only when both the email and the logo have been successfully validated can BIMI-enabled logos be shown. The email must specifically be authenticated using the DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Receiving & Conformance) standard, with quarantine or reject as the enforcement setting. For use by the transmitting domain, the logo must also be verified using a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC), which attests to its legitimacy and ownership.
The AuthIndicators Working Group urges brands to take precautions because 90% of hacks originate through emails. Despite this, many companies have neglected to deploy DMARC or the underlying authentication standards Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), leaving their domains open to unauthorised usage and their clients and staff susceptible to phishing.
BIMI gives businesses a quantifiable edge while safeguarding their reputation, team members, and clients from damaging phishing scams. Digital marketers have a strong incentive to embrace when verified brand logos are shown next to email messages, according to email providers like Yahoo Mail, which have witnessed a 10% increase in interaction.
Seth Blank, chief technology officer of Valimail and chair of the AuthIndicators Working Group, stated that BIMI is a crucial next step once DMARC has been implemented in order to improve customer experience and trust in email. "As part of an industry-wide initiative to advance security through increased adoption of strong email authentication, BIMI provides brands with a concrete benefit by allowing them to control the logo associated with their messages, driving new impressions and a better experience for their customers," according to the statement.
According to Marcel Becker, Senior Director of Product Management at Yahoo, email is the most effective brand-to-consumer medium in the world. "BIMI has had a significant impact on the brands that use Yahoo Mail to reach their audience, raising open and engagement rates. Apple's involvement will significantly improve consumer and small- and large-scale brand experiences.
Please visit bimigroup.org if you are a business looking to harness the full potential of BIMI and learn more about project participation.
The AuthIndicators Working Group's Description:
The vendor-neutral AuthIndicators Striving Group (bimigroup.org), which is creating the BIMI standard, is a committee of businesses working to improve the inbox experience for all email users globally by using more authentication to lessen email fraud.