Entrust has been working with mailbox providers since June 2017 to create Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) with Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs), digital certificates that enable organizations to display their registered trademark logo in the avatar slot alongside outgoing emails in many mailboxes today. BIMI standards aim to make the email ecosystem more secure and engaging with DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) and VMCs.
VMCs help an organization’s emails stand out and get noticed in a crowded inbox while protecting them against fraud through DMARC’s anti-spoofing technology.
But there was one problem: Government organizations could not get a VMC unless they had registered their mark with a recognized trademark office.
Now that problem has been solved. Governments can now get a Government Mark Certificate showing their marks or logos authorized under applicable law – even if the marks or logos are not registered with the local trademark office. The good news is, a Government Mark Certificate works just the same as a trademark VMC and will show the government’s mark or logo in the avatar slot alongside their outgoing emails for mailbox providers who support VMCs.
At present, Government Mark Certificates are supported by Gmail, Apple, and other select applications in the following countries and regions:
- In Europe
- Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.
- Rest of the world:
- Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, Republic of Korea (South Korea), New Zealand, and the United States.
Entrust is proud to announce that we issued the world’s first Government Mark Certificate to the Danish government’s national IT agency, Statens IT. What’s the result? Outgoing emails from Statens IT's “@statens-it.dk“ address now display the agency’s government logo (a stylized Danish crown with the agency name “Statens IT” below) to email recipients.
“Using BIMI with a Government Mark Certificate (GMC) to display our official government logo in email communications is a strategic investment towards securing our communications and building trust with our citizens, vendors, and governmental users. We believe by implementing BIMI with GMC we can assure these users that we are adopting the best practices in email security."-Thomas Hartvig Nielsen, Statens IT
Logo of Statens IT , Danish government’s national IT agency
On the left is what an inbox looks like with emails without Government Mark Certificates (GMC) and on the right you see an inbox when emails are enabled with a GMC:
If you want to learn more about Government Mark Certificates and how to obtain one for your government organization, contact us at [email protected]
