Proofpoint Elevates Email Security with Adaptive Threat Protection

Proofpoint, a leading cybersecurity and compliance firm, has introduced two groundbreaking innovations setting new benchmarks in email security. These advancements offer comprehensive and highly effective end-to-end protection throughout the entirety of the email delivery process. By integrating new pre-delivery, click-time, and post-delivery detections, Proofpoint’s enhanced core email security now includes:

– A pioneering pre-delivery defense against both social engineering threats and malicious links.

– Innovative adaptive email security capabilities, featuring a fully integrated layer of behavioral AI-based defense post-delivery, designed to thwart targeted threats such as lateral internal phishing and advanced email fraud, particularly for high-risk employees. These capabilities are seamlessly integrated with Microsoft 365 through API integration.

Since 2016, text-based social engineering and URLs have been the predominant techniques employed by threat actors. According to the FBI’s 2023 Internet Crime Report, losses due to Business Email Compromise (BEC) have reached a staggering $2.9 billion, making it the most significant cyber threat for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs). Proofpoint blocks over 66 million attempted BEC attacks targeting its customers monthly. Additionally, the volume of threats stemming from malicious URLs has surged, with Proofpoint detecting over 4.5 million unique malicious URLs daily, marking a 119% increase in the last three years.

The speed at which these threats propagate is alarming; Proofpoint’s extensive dataset reveals that one in seven clicks on malicious URLs occurs within 60 seconds of the message reaching the inbox, underscoring the urgency for both pre and post-delivery protection measures.

Darren Lee, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Proofpoint’s People Protection Group, emphasizes the necessity for a unified approach to email security: “The fragmentation across email security solutions allows threat actors to win, again and again. Organizations need a simple, unified and effective way to catch every threat, every time, every way a user may encounter it, using every form of detection.”

Proofpoint’s latest semantic, AI-based detection innovations offer comprehensive protection before emails reach Microsoft 365 and Google Workplace inboxes. Leveraging NexusAI, Proofpoint’s proprietary AI engine, pre-delivery detection stops payloadless social engineering threats and malicious links. This capability interprets threat actor’s message intent regardless of word variation or language used, optimizing detection models by 10X with minimal processing time.

Adaptive Email Security, an Integrated Cloud Email Security (ICES) solution, delivers an additional layer of behavioral AI-based detection for advanced threats, including BEC and social engineering, with seamless API integration with Microsoft 365. It identifies high-risk users and automatically quarantines high-confidence threats while providing real-time coaching to users through contextual warning banners.

Proofpoint’s Adaptive Email Security is gradually rolling out for select customers as part of its standard email security packages, focusing on an organization’s most vulnerable employees.