Over 90% of cyberattacks start in email inboxes, making email protection one of the most critical investments for organizations. With increasingly sophisticated tactics like impersonation attacks on the rise, keeping attackers out and sensitive data secure warrants solutions beyond basic filtering. One email is all it takes to take down an entire system.
We’ve put together a roundup of the leading email protection solutions to help aid IT decision-makers in selecting the tool that best fits their organizations’ remote and office-based workforce needs.
Key takeaways
- Email is an overwhelmingly common entry point for attackers, making inbox security one of the highest-impact defenses IT teams can deploy.
- Effective email protection solutions include phishing and malware detection, business email compromise (BEC) defense, AI-driven threat analysis, and data loss prevention (DLP).
- Cloud-native solutions offer advantages over on-premises tools, such as faster updates and their capacity for scalability, often making them a better fit for remote or hybrid teams.
- Advanced email protection solutions integrate outbound protection and machine learning (ML)-driven threat detection with centralized visibility, helping IT teams manage threats and user risk from a single pane.
Why email protection is essential for every employee
Remote employees, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, and the growth of SaaS and data solutions have expanded the digital attack surface, making email a prime target for cybercriminals. Phishing schemes and business email compromise attacks are frequent and increasingly sophisticated. They can also deliver a major blow to an organization’s bottom line if successful, with the average cost of a data breach approaching $5 million globally in 2024.
Email protection software has become a core requirement for safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining trust. Security awareness training and proactive data loss prevention strategies are especially critical in minimizing human error and protecting outbound communications.
For a comprehensive look into the strategies organizations are adopting to keep communications safe, check out our webinar, Prevent, Detect, Recover: A Unified Strategy for Email Security.
Must-have features in email protection
Effective email protection software goes far beyond blocking spam. Modern platforms include a layered set of defenses that cover inbound and outbound risks. Key features to look for include:
- Built-in email fraud protection and defenses against the common social engineering attacks like phishing and spoofing.
- Malware scanning and advanced protection tools to help identify more complex attack vectors, like ransomware and trojans, before they reach users.
- AI- and machine learning-driven analysis for real-time detection of emerging threats, including zero-day threats that exploit unknown vulnerabilities before patches are available.
- Out-of-the-box incident response capabilities, including quarantine management, automated alerts, and threat dashboards.
Popular email protection services and considerations for IT
With so many email protection tools on the market, finding the right fit can be challenging. To help cut through the noise, here are five leading email protection services and what sets them apart.
1. ConnectWise Email Security™ with Proofpoint
ConnectWise Email Security with Proofpoint offers advanced, AI-powered protection designed for both managed service providers (MSPs) and IT teams. Built to defend against phishing, malware, impersonation, and business email compromise, it combines advanced filtering capabilities with machine learning to detect threats before they reach inboxes.
ConnectWise Email Security integrates with ConnectWise Security Dashboard, giving IT teams a centralized security dashboard and single-pane-of-glass visibility across environments all within the ConnectWise Asio platform. ConnectWise Email Security also supports outbound email protection with DLP, and encryption to help keep sensitive information secure.
To address human error, which contributes to the majority of cybersecurity issues, ConnectWise Email Security includes built-in security awareness training—one of the most effective security measures available. With direct API integration options in Microsoft 365, MSPs and IT teams can add protection in minutes. This integration provides smooth onboarding, straightforward management, simple reporting and billing, and email continuity features like emergency inbox and instant replay.
ConnectWise Email Security offers both depth and flexibility for MSPs and IT teams that need industry leading protection, that is always-on, with room to scale.
2. Barracuda
Barracuda provides a range of email security features, including advanced threat protection, outbound filtering, and malware protection. Additional features include backup capabilities for compliance and continuity and integrations for Microsoft 365.
Automated incident response, covering detection, alerts, and cleanup, helps IT teams act quickly. These features make Barracuda well-suited for organizations focused on preventing business email compromise and maintaining layered defenses across distributed environments.
3. Check Point
Check Point provides inline, cloud-based email protection by scanning for threats before emails hit the recipient’s inbox. Its AI-powered engine uses anomaly detection to identify compromised accounts and anti-phishing software to detect user impersonation.
Check Point also provides data loss prevention features and integrates with common platforms like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Reporting and visibility tools are included to help IT teams monitor and respond to incidents across remote and hybrid environments.
4. Mimecast
Mimecast is an email security solution that provides multi-layered protection against phishing, malware, and impersonation attempts. It combines advanced filtering with AI-driven detection to stop targeted attacks at the email gateway.
For organizations in regulated industries, Mimecast also offers data discovery and retention tools to support compliance. This combination of email protection and governance makes it a potential option for businesses that need more than basic filtering.
5. SpamTitan
SpamTitan is a cloud-based email protection software known for its spam filtering and phishing prevention capabilities. It uses advanced machine learning and real-time threat intelligence to block malicious emails and other attacks.
With features like email content filtering, recipient verification, and multi-layered spam analysis, SpamTitan provides IT teams with flexibility and control. It’s often used by organizations seeking straightforward, scalable email protection for distributed workforces.
Why choose ConnectWise?
In an era where most attacks begin in the inbox, email protection is the safety net that protects every aspect of your business communications. And with human error involved in 74% of security incidents, inbound threat detection is no longer enough to keep your data protected.
ConnectWise Email Security with Proofpoint is a comprehensive email protection solution that combines AI-driven detection, BEC defense, and built-in employee security awareness training to proactively address email risks from start to finish. With enhanced visibility and reporting features available through Asio and Security Dashboard, IT teams gain end-to-end oversight into threat reporting with unlimited scalability and integration capabilities within the ConnectWise ecosystem.
To see how ConnectWise Email Security can add a critical layer of defense to your data protection strategy, register for a live demo today.
