The State of Email Security in 2025: How to Protect Your Users from Advanced Threats

The Rising Complexity of Email Threats

1. Phishing is More Convincing Than Ever

Gone are the days of poorly written, easily recognizable phishing emails. Attackers now leverage AI to craft context-aware, highly personalized emails that evade traditional detection mechanisms. They mimic trusted sources, using brand impersonation, business logic abuse, and even compromised accounts to deliver payloads or steal credentials.

2. Business Email Compromise (BEC) is Costing Billions

Unlike phishing, BEC attacks don’t rely on malware. Instead, attackers use social engineering to impersonate executives, vendors, or partners to trick employees into wire transfers or sensitive data disclosures. These attacks are difficult to detect with standard email filtering solutions and continue to cause significant financial losses.

3. Zero-Day and AI-Powered Threats Are Outpacing Traditional Defenses

Many organizations still rely heavily on signature-based detection and basic spam filters. The problem? Modern attacks use polymorphic techniques, AI-driven payloads, and living-off-the-land (LotL) tactics that bypass these traditional defenses. Even secure email gateways (SEGs) struggle to detect emerging threats in real time.

How to Strengthen Your Organization’s Email Security

To effectively combat these advanced threats, organizations must move beyond basic email filtering and adopt a layered, AI-driven approach to email security. Here’s how:

Implement Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

Modern AI-driven threat detection solutions analyze email behavior, content, and metadata to detect anomalies that traditional filters miss. These solutions use real-time machine learning to identify threats before they reach users.

Adopt Zero-Trust Email Security

A zero-trust approach means assuming every email is potentially malicious. This includes:

• Email authentication (DMARC, DKIM, SPF) to prevent spoofing.
• Real-time behavioral analysis to detect suspicious patterns.
• User verification for wire transfer or sensitive data requests.

Strengthen User Awareness & Training

Technology alone isn’t enough. Even the best security solutions won’t stop an employee from falling for a well-crafted social engineering attack. Regular security awareness training, phishing simulations, and automated phishing detection alerts can significantly reduce user-based risks.

Deploy Inline Protection with Nondisruptive Testing

How do you know if your email security is actually working? A nondisruptive Proof of Value (POV) can help you assess:

• How many threats are bypassing your current security?
• Which users are being targeted most frequently?
• What email security gaps need to be addressed?

Are Your Defenses Holding Up?

Attackers aren’t slowing down—and neither should your email security.

Ask us about conducting a nondisruptive Email Security POV today.