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NOTICE DATE:  March 14, 2019

NOTICE TYPE:  M-A031419-01 General

SHORT DESCRIPTION:  ERCOT Implementation of a DMARC “Reject” Policy

INTENDED AUDIENCE:  Market Participants

DAY AFFECTED:  April 1, 2019

LONG DESCRIPTION:  In October 2017, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued Binding Operational Directive BOD-18-01Enhance Email and Web Security, requiring federal entities to implement email authentication technologies to prevent the transmission of email that fraudulently uses a federal domain.

 

Although ERCOT is not subject to the requirements of BOD-18-01, in an effort to ensure that only legitimate ERCOT emails reach their intended recipients, ERCOT will begin using a Domain-Based Message Authentication (DMARC) practice to reject emails that do not pass a verification test. This change will become effective April 1, 2019. DMARC is an email authentication/validation, policy and reporting practice designed to detect and prevent the distribution of fraudulent and/or deceptive emails.

 

In 2018, several million fraudulent and/or deceptive emails were sent using the @ercot.com domain. ERCOT’s practice will authenticate/validate outgoing emails from the @ercot.com domain, and will prevent any such emails that fail ERCOT’s DMARC test from reaching any intended recipient that has a DMARC practice in place.

 

ERCOT encourages Market Participants to adopt a DMARC practice to help protect their own domains and systems from fraudulent and/or deceptive emails.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Please see the DMARC website for more information.  To determine whether a particular domain uses a DMARC practices use the DMARC Inspector search tool. 

 

CONTACT: If you have any questions, please contact your ERCOT Account Manager. You may also call the general ERCOT Client Services phone number at (512) 248-3900 or contact ERCOT Client Services via email at [log in to unmask].

 

If you are receiving email from a public ERCOT distribution list that you no longer wish to receive, please follow this link in order to unsubscribe from this list: http://lists.ercot.com.

 

mm