Email security by industry
Some sectors are far more exposed than others. See how each industry scores for email security - and find out where your own domain ranks.
Global average score
Domains benchmarked
Industries ranked
A read on the bar in your market
DMARCER benchmarks 17 million domains and scores every industry, so the figures below aren’t a survey or an estimate – they’re measured from real DNS, across whole sectors. That turns “is our email security any good?” into a question you can actually answer.
A score in isolation is hard to judge. Comparing your own sector shows whether the bar in your market is high or low – and, more usefully, where you stand against the organisations you’re measured against. Pick your industry below to see how it scores and where the typical gaps are.
Why this matters – whoever you are
- Running your own domains? You get an honest yardstick: ahead of your sector, or behind the firms you compete with.
- Managing clients? A sector score is a concrete way to show a client where they stand – and to make the case for the work.
Every industry, scored out of 100
Each sector below carries its average domain-security score and the number of domains it’s drawn from. Open any one to see the detail behind the number – and how your own domain would sit within it.
Why benchmark by industry at all?
Sectors don’t face the same pressure. Some are regulated, frequently targeted, or full of large organisations that have invested in email security – so the bar sits high, and a middling score actually leaves you behind. Others are dominated by smaller firms where almost nobody has it locked down, so the same score might put you near the front.
Either way, the number on its own tells you less than the comparison does. Benchmarking against your own sector replaces a guess with a position – and a position is something you can act on.
- Tells you whether the bar in your market is high or low
- Shows where you stand against your real peers
- Turns an abstract score into a clear position
- Drawn from real DNS, not a survey or estimate
The same gaps, in every sector
Whatever the average, the shortfalls behind it are remarkably consistent. Across industries, the same handful of issues drag scores down again and again – which is good news, because it means the path to a better score is well-trodden and the same fixes work almost everywhere.
DMARC stuck at p=none
A policy is published but set only to monitor – so impersonated mail is still delivered. The protection exists on paper but never enforces.
SPF over the 10-lookup limit
Too many included senders push SPF past its hard lookup limit, so it silently stops working – a common and easily missed failure.
Missing MTA-STS / TLS-RPT
Inbound mail isn’t forced over encryption, and there’s no reporting when secure delivery fails – leaving messages open to downgrade in transit.
Weak or missing DKIM
Without a valid signature, messages can’t prove they’re genuinely yours – weakening DMARC and undermining the whole stack.
How to use these benchmarks
Start by finding your sector above to see the bar you’re measured against. Then run a free check on your own domain to get your score out of 100, and compare the two: ahead of your industry, in line with it, or behind. From there the recurring gaps point the way – bring DMARC to enforcement, get SPF back under its lookup limit, add MTA-STS and TLS-RPT, and shore up DKIM – and your position moves with every fix. Learn how each control works →
Where to go next
Full benchmark →
The complete picture across every domain we score.
How it works →
Plain-English primer on the controls behind the score.
Check your domain →
Get your own score and see where you sit.
Where does your domain rank?
Run a free check to get your score out of 100 and see how you compare to your sector.
Check your domain