Email remains a popular communication channel that organizations depend on to connect and engage. As organizations plan to adopt a Zero Trust framework to protect identities, data, and applications and reduce risk exposure, they need to apply this very lens of verifying identity before giving access to the security of their email infrastructure as well. Year after year, phishing continues to be the number one threat vector impacting organizations, causing financial losses, tarnishing brand reputation, and damaging trust.

To enable customers to bring best practices to email and differentiate their brand, Entrust collaborated with mailbox providers to conceptualize and design a new and innovative certificate category – Verified Mark Certificates.

Entrust Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs) are digital certificates that enable organizations to improve email engagement and create a more immersive email experience by displaying their registered trademark logo in the avatar slot alongside emails. Our VMCs adhere to the specifications of BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) to help an organization’s emails stand out in a crowded inbox while potentially protecting them against fraud using DMARC’s (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) anti-spoofing technology. The displayed logo also provides a visual clue to the recipient to associate with a verified and authenticated email.

Benefits

Entrust VMCs enable customers to improve their email strategy while offering several benefits:

• Automated certificate and logo installation and hosting - Entrust hosts the registered logo and certificate for an automated, hassle-free installation and renewal process. Set up once and reap the benefits with every email communication that follows.

• Automated CSR Generation - Customers can choose to auto generate the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) on the ECS platform. Our platform follows a secure process to create the required encryption key on the customer’s behalf to issue the certificate. The encryption key is then securely discarded in compliance with industry regulations.

• Free logo replacement and unlimited reissues - Entrust offers customers free, unlimited logo replacement and reissuance capabilities throughout the lifetime of the certificate with minimal IT overhead.

• Centralized management in Entrust Certificate Services (ECS) - Customers can request verification for VMCs and manage their associated brand logos via ECS, our robust certificate management platform, making it easier to manage the end-to-end experience for multiple brands from a central platform.
• Enhanced email engagement and brand recognition - Leveraging the avatar slot to display your brand logo brings immediate brand recognition to the recipients’ inbox. It also positively impacts email engagement - improving open rates, average purchase likelihood and boosting brand recall.

How it Works

To display the registered trademark logo in the inbox, organizations require a VMC from an authorized certification authority, such as Entrust, and a DMARC policy set to 100% quarantine or reject. With DMARC properly enabled, an organization can verify the organization’s identity and registered trademark with a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) from Entrust. This combination allows the recipient to strongly identify the email is coming from a verified email sender.

Entrust has also partnered with Red Sift to offer customers an integrated BIMI solution that seamlessly combines the benefits of VMCs and DMARC. Customers are offered one console with a single pane of glass view and one point of contact to track and manage the progress of both the VMC license and DMARC implementation. This integrated solution simplifies BIMI adoption for customers.