We use the solution to stop email attacks, such as credential phishing, impersonation, and some forms of spear phishing. It also helps prevent attacks that bypass email authentication protocols like SPF and DMARC.
It's the top choice because no company can operate without security. Ensuring email protection is a major priority for any organization when building its infrastructure. It effectively stops sophisticated attacks launched by advanced threat actors. It can identify attacks related to impersonation, deception, identity theft, business email compromise, and more.
One major threat is QR code phishing, along with TOAD (Telephone-Oriented Attack Delivery). TOAD attacks don't include links, URLs, or attachments in emails. Instead, attackers try to trick you into calling them, often by offering something enticing like a 50% discount on football matches. Once you call, they may try to get your two-factor authentication code or send malicious links to your personal email, bypassing security controls. Proofpoint has consistently detected and prevented these kinds of deceptive attacks.
I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for five years.
It's top-rated for scalability because of its architecture. It uses a central management solution called Master and supports adding up to 25 or 30 agents. Each agent can handle a significant number of users, so with 2 agents, you can cover 5,000 to 10,000 users. Given this setup, 25 to 50 agents can manage even larger user bases. These agents are servers, not software installed on individual machines, which allows for excellent scalability.
The initial setup is straightforward and user-friendly, but it does require experts to implement. It's not something that regular users can handle. You need skilled professionals who have a good understanding of email systems, Office 365, Exchange, email flow, and SMTP protection. While the process is simple, having knowledgeable people is essential for a successful implementation.
It starts with an offline configuration in the first phase, keeping everything inactive and not migrating traffic right away. This allows you to validate policies, mail traffic, and mail flow without affecting live operations. Once everything is validated, the cutover happens in phase two. After ensuring the cutover is successful, you can then move on to the tuning phase.
I’ve done this many times. The initial setup duration depends on the company size, the complexity of the policies, the rules in place, and whether the setup is complex or straightforward.
They have their own dedicated Protection Services team and rely on certified professional service engineers on the ground.
To protect email effectively, you need to secure it across multiple channels—external, internal, and even after delivery. Proofpoint is the top choice for comprehensive email protection because it covers all these aspects. Gartner has stated that to fully protect email, you need coverage across all channels, and Proofpoint is the only vendor with a platform capable of doing that.
It operates using the MLX engine along with AI to protect against business email compromise. Some of the engines within the solution rely purely on AI. The system can be left to learn normal behavior over two to three weeks. Once it understands this behavior, it provides protection based on what it has learned. We also acquired a vendor called TCL, which excels in detecting attacks through advanced analysis and AI.
Tuning requires time; it's not difficult to maintain but needs careful adjustment. It may take about a week to ensure everything is optimized according to best practices, focusing on tuning rather than just configuration.