DMARC in the Age of Gratification
I think it is safe to say that we live in a time where people are obsessed with speed. People want one-click purchases, same-day delivery, instant metrics and immediate return on investment. If something does not deliver visible value right now, it is often deprioritized or dismissed entirely.
This is something I see every day with DMARC and one of the main reasons, in my opinion, that DMARC adoption continues to lag. It is not because DMARC isn’t valuable or because the risk isn’t real, but rather because DMARC requires patience, discipline and a long-term mindset. These are traits that many organizations today struggle to prioritize.
The truth about DMARC is that it is not a “set it and forget it” control. DMARC forces organizations to confront the reality of their email and/or their client’s email ecosystem. They must inventory and rationalize every sender. Data also has to be gathered so that informed decisions can be made, which takes time.
People must learn to accept short-term friction for long-term protection. There is no dopamine hit from publishing a policy of p=none; rather, this marks the beginning of the DMARC journey in collecting data. There is no flashy dashboard spike, no immediate applause. Instead there is analysis, cleanup, conversation and accountability.
We have begun to normalize avoiding difficult work by reframing it as optional. I often hear things like, “We will circle back to enforcement later,” “We haven’t had an incident yet” and “Is this really necessary?” These are not technical objections. They are cultural ones. They reflect a social pattern of convenience over commitment and comfort over responsibility; however, effective security has never worked that way.
“Hard” does not equal “wrong.” Some of the most important systems in the world were difficult to implement. Seatbelts, fire codes, financial controls and data backups were all difficult and all necessary. DMARC belongs in this category. Email continues to be the main attack vector for businesses worldwide. Pretending that partial measures are good enough does not make an organization safe; it just delays the consequences. Hard work that gets deferred does not disappear—it compounds.
Companies that successfully reach p=reject tend to share one thing in common: leadership willing to think beyond the next quarter. They have an understanding that security maturity is a journey, not a checkbox. They understand that preventative work is invisible when it is successful and that an absence of incidents is not proof of safety.
Adopting DMARC is more than a technical achievement; it is a statement of values. By adopting DMARC, an organization says, “We are willing to do the hard work now so our customers, employees and brand don’t pay for it later.”
The real question isn’t “Is DMARC worth it?” The real question is “When did we start believing that difficulty is a valid reason not to do the right thing?”
DMARC doesn’t fail because it is flawed. It fails because it gets deprioritized, put on the back burner or saved for the right time.
Want to continue the conversation? Head over to the dmarcian Forum.
