Logos as phishing antidotes in e-mails: Apple goes along with BIMI

Apple is on board with BIMI: The manufacturer’s mail app, which is preinstalled on iPhones, iPads and Macs, displays brand logos and a reference to digital verification if the e-mail sender meets the specifications of the “Brand Indicators for Message Identification” (BIMI ) support. The feature is part of iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and macOS 13 Ventura. Apple Mail does not support this in older versions of the operating systems, but users can switch to the web app in iCloud.com, which has also been expanded to include BIMI support.

Digitally certified emails against phishing

BIMI-compliant e-mails are also marked as “digitally certified” and provided with a note that the e-mail actually comes from a domain of the specified sender and that the logo is also verified. Apple itself now uses BIMI for email communication with its customers: real Apple emails are provided with an Apple logo and are given the addition that they are digitally certified – if the email client of the recipient it supports.

Apple also uses BIMI for its own e-mails, so users can more easily distinguish real e-mails from phishing.

This makes it easier for users to distinguish between genuine Apple e-mails and phishing e-mails. Phishers like to copy Apple’s letters and use them to lure people to a phishing site, often with alarming warnings about an alleged iCloud account lock or alleged third-party access to iCloud.

Alongside Google’s Gmail, Apple Mail is one of the largest and most widely used e-mail clients in the world. Gmail also supports BIMI. Apple Mail is the standard mail app on a good 2 billion actively used Apple devices, and only a comparatively small proportion of users are likely to use third-party apps. It has only been possible to set up another e-mail app as the default on the iPhone for a good two years.

Brand logos still rare

Mails with brand logos still seem to be relatively rare overall, but in addition to Apple, Amazon has also been supporting this in e-mails to customers for a short time. What companies need to do to send certified emails and display their logo in this way is described in the Mac & i Pro forum (for Mac & i Pro members only).

(lbe)

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