AuthIndicators Welcomes Google BIMI Pilot
Test of new standard will help to increase adoption of authentication, allowing domain owners to transmit logos securely, along with email messages
The AuthIndicators Working Group, which has developed the BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) specification, congratulates Google for launching a pilot of BIMI in Gmail.
BIMI is an email specification that allows brand logo display within authenticated emails. In the coming weeks, BIMI pilots will be active at Google and Verizon Media; in the coming year, additional pilots will begin at other major mailbox providers.
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Of particular note is the inclusion of Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs), which are the highest level of verification defined in the BIMI spec, and help to reduce the danger of spoofing by verifying that senders own the logo they’re transmitting. While Gmail is the first to pilot VMC, AuthIndicators expects that this component will receive wide adoption amongst mailbox providers.
“The BIMI specification represents years of careful, collaborative work from companies across the email ecosystem,” said Seth Blank, chair, AuthIndicators Working Group. “It’s been designed for security and scalability, and will help stimulate the adoption of email authentication to make email more secure for everyone. I’m excited that it has now progressed to the next step: Testing the specification in the real world.”
BIMI provides a standardized method for publishing a logo in DNS for use alongside received emails, and it gives domain owners the ability to suggest a specific image be displayed. (See our BIMI FAQ as well as our implementation guide for more details.)
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The AuthIndicators Working Group’s goal with BIMI is to strengthen the email ecosystem by increasing the adoption of strong authentication through DMARC. This aligns with the Gmail pilot’s goal as well. BIMI incentivizes email senders to strengthen their security posture by protecting their domains against spoofing, decreasing the likelihood of phishing and increasing the trustworthiness and security of email for all users.
The AuthIndicators Working Group membership consists of Fastmail, Google, LinkedIn, Twilio SendGrid, Validity, Valimail, and Verizon Media, as well as many passionate individual contributors with deep industry experience, all of whom have contributed significant time and resources to this standard.
The AuthIndicators Working Group would also like to thank two certification authorities, Entrust Datacard and DigiCert, for their efforts in aiding the development of the validation procedures.
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