Comparison Shop to See How Automated Email Security Beats the Competition

April 29, 2022

What do some of today’s nastiest and most damaging cyberattacks like ransomware, business email compromise and account takeover have in common? They all tend to start with a phishing email message. That’s one reason why choosing the right email security solution is critical for protecting businesses from cyberattacks. But when you’re trying to figure out which email security solution is right for your situation, it can be challenging to figure out where to even start with so many players in the field. A comparison between the three most common types of email security can be a great way to help narrow the search. 


Excerpted in part from the eBook The Email Security Buyer’s Guide DOWNLOAD IT>>


Types of Email Security


Cloud vs. On-Premises  

Only about 50% of organizations have migrated their email into the cloud, but that number is steadily growing. Cloud security is better for most organizations because it’s more able to keep up with the fast pace of threats and more in line with the way that we do business today. These are the main categories of cloud email security: 

Built-In/Native Security  

This is the generic security that comes with most email platforms like MS Defender and Google Workspace Security. Using standard security can reduce the upfront cost of securing a business but it has several major drawbacks.  

Challenges:  

  • A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t account for an organization’s unique needs and circumstances. 
  • Many organizations find that phishing emails are still getting through, leading them to purchase another product. 
  • Microsoft 365 lacks tools to quickly investigate and resolve successful attacks
  • Integration can be tricky with PSA/ticketing platforms and SIEM/threat intelligence 
  • Google offers a very limited set of security management features for IT administrators from within the Admin Console.   

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Secure Email Gateways (SEGs) 


A Secure Email Gateways (SEG) is an email security tool that aims to put a checkpoint between dangerous incoming messages and a company’s email server. Email providers like Mimecast, Barracuda and Proofpoint offer SEG-based email security. SEGs have been stalwarts of email security for years, but they have some glaring limitations these days. 

Challenges: 

  • A SEG is dependent on receiving uploads of updated threat intelligence to find new threats. 
  • Incoming email communication can be delayed by a SEG’s screening process. 
  • SEGs require regular, extensive technician tinkering for setup, maintenance and configuration.  
      

API – Based Email Security  

Application Program Interface (API) based email security is cloud-native email security that is designed to quickly and smoothly detect and mitigate threats without delaying communications. API email security also gives techs more insight over and control of the protection an organization is actually receiving in today’s cloud-based business environment. 

Why API security is better than SEG security: 

  • To use a SEG, email must be routed through a perimeter. Making that work effectively requires constant adjustments from already overworked IT teams like frequent DNS changes and MX record maintenance by administrators. API email security has more automation capability and less maintenance. 
  • SEGs are clunky in a cloud-based world. The architecture of a SEG today is fundamentally the same as it was a few years ago, and it’s still dependent on the authoritarian, perimeter-based security model of the pre-cloud world. API security is truly cloud-native, giving it the advantage in integrating seamlessly and maximizing its effectiveness with other cloud applications. 

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API-Based Security Has a Host of Advantages 


API email security just brings more to the table than standard built-in email security or a SEG. 

 API SEG Standard 
Cloud-native architecture ✅ ❎ ❎ 
Customizability   ✅ ✅ ❎ 
Doesn’t slow down communications   ✅ ❎ ✅ 
Quick Detection of new & zero-day threats ✅ ❎ ✅ 
Highly accurate in spotting sophisticated phishing messages   ✅ ❎ ❎ 
Fast deployment and integration ✅ ❎ ✅ 
Minimal maintenance   ✅ ❎ ✅ 
Automation options ✅ ❎ ✅ 
AI capability ✅ ❎ ❎ 
Future-ready ✅ ❎ ❎ 

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The Cloud vs. On-Premises Email Security Dilemma 


Smart organizations know that the future of both communication and the way that we do business is in the cloud. Interruptions to email traffic by an email server going down could lead to lost business opportunities and dissatisfied clients. Cloud-based email has an average 99.9% uptime.  


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Security Benefits from the Cloud 


Organizations that have adopted cloud-based technology enjoy myriad benefits

  • 94% of SMBs in a Microsoft survey appreciate the security upgrade that adopting the cloud brings. 
  • Storing and handling email in the cloud offers the advantage of acting as automatic backup, making recovery from incidents faster.  
  • Cloud-based email keeps communications and data sent through email safer by eliminating dependence on the security capability of an organization’s physical server. 

Cost-benefits from the cloud 

  • Cloud computing is 40x cost-effective compared to in-house IT systems for SMBs. 
  • On-premises email security entails regular physical maintenance, upgrade and replacement of equipment but cloud-based email doesn’t, reducing CAPEX. 
  • Small and medium-sized enterprises enjoy 40% more cost-efficiency from adopting third-party platforms employment rather than maintaining 
  • Security automation and AI can save businesses more than 80% of the cost of manual security. 

Future-readiness benefits from the cloud 

  • Cloud-based email is naturally scalable and travels with an organization everywhere, making it easy to support remote work and company growth. 
  • Many cloud-based email solutions include features that make compliance with security regulations and adjustments to changes in those regulations effortless. 
  • Organizations using cloud-based email security gain the advantage of constant innovation from service providers instead of paying for new software and tech time to make improvements themselves. 
  • 82% of SMBs say they’ve reduced costs as a result of adopting cloud technology – and 70% are reinvesting the saved money right back into their business. That’s the cherry on top of the added security cyber resilience and quality-of-life benefits that companies enjoy from choosing AI-based, automated cloud email security.

See 10 reasons why Graphus is better than other email security solutions. SEE THE LIST>>


It’s Time to Make the Move to Cloud-Native Security with Graphus


 Graphus is an automated email security solution that is powered by AI. That means that it can intelligently sort and filter the emails that come into a company’s environment to determine which ones are safe and which ones are suspicious. Security tools like Microsoft 365’s built-in security and the five leading secure email gateways (SEGs) miss up to 65% of targeted spear phishing messages.

How does Graphus get the job done? By using a unique, patented algorithm that fosters machine learning, enabling it to learn each company’s unique communication patterns and refine its judgment criteria all by itself to tailor that company’s protection now and in the future.    

  • TrustGraph® automatically detects and quarantines malicious emails that might break through an organization’s email security platform or existing Secure Email Gateway (SEG), so the end-user never interacts with harmful messages.   
  • EmployeeShield® alerts recipients of a potentially suspicious message to danger that they may not notice by placing an interactive warning banner at the top that allows users to quarantine or mark the message as safe with a single click.   
  • Phish911™ empowers employees to proactively report suspicious and unwanted emails for IT to investigate reducing your exposure to potential disaster.  

Stop phishing immediately with Graphus – the most simple, automated and affordable phishing defense available today. 


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