Email Is Still the #1 Attack Vector — Here's How to Lock It Down

Every major breach you've read about in the last year has something in common: it started with an email. Phishing, business email compromise, ransomware delivery, credential theft — email remains the front door for over 90% of cyberattacks.

And it's not slowing down. Attackers are using AI to craft messages that are virtually indistinguishable from legitimate communication. The days of spotting a phishing email by its broken grammar are over.

Your business needs more than a spam filter. It needs a security platform built to stop today's threats.

Why Traditional Email Security Falls Short

Most businesses rely on the built-in security that comes with Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. It catches obvious spam and known malware signatures, but that's where it stops.

Modern email attacks are designed specifically to bypass these default filters:

• Business Email Compromise (BEC) — No malicious links or attachments. Just a convincing email from what appears to be your CEO asking for a wire transfer. These attacks cost businesses over $2.7 billion annually.
• Credential phishing — Pixel-perfect replicas of Microsoft, DocuSign, or banking login pages that harvest credentials in real time.
• Supply chain compromise — Attackers infiltrate a vendor's email account and send malicious messages from a trusted, legitimate address.
• QR code phishing — Malicious QR codes embedded in emails bypass traditional link scanning entirely.
• Multi-stage attacks — A clean email delivers a link that's harmless at scan time but weaponized hours later when someone actually clicks it.

Default email security was built for yesterday's threats. Today's attacks require a fundamentally different approach.

How Proofpoint Stops What Others Miss

Proofpoint is the industry leader in email security — trusted by 87 of the Fortune 100 and recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Email Security. It protects more than 2.7 million organizations worldwide.

What makes it different is a people-centric approach to security. Instead of just scanning messages, Proofpoint understands who in your organization is being targeted, how they're being attacked, and what data is at risk.

Advanced Threat Protection

Proofpoint's AI-powered detection engine analyzes every email across multiple dimensions — sender reputation, message content, embedded URLs, attachments, and behavioral patterns. It catches threats that signature-based tools miss entirely:

• URL rewriting and sandboxing — Every link is analyzed at click time, not just delivery time. If a URL turns malicious after delivery, it's still blocked when someone clicks it.
• Attachment sandboxing — Suspicious files are detonated in a secure environment before they ever reach an inbox.
• Impersonation detection — AI models identify BEC attempts by analyzing writing patterns, sender behavior, and relationship context.
• Supplier threat detection — Monitors your supply chain for compromised vendor accounts sending malicious emails.

Email Fraud Defense

Proofpoint's Email Fraud Defense gives you full visibility into who's sending email on behalf of your domain. It automates DMARC authentication, identifies domain lookalikes, and prevents attackers from spoofing your brand to trick your customers or employees.

Security Awareness Training

Technology catches most threats, but your people are the last line of defense. Proofpoint's ZenGuide platform delivers targeted training based on each employee's actual risk profile — not generic one-size-fits-all modules.

Employees who click on phishing simulations get immediate, relevant training. High-risk users receive more frequent assessments. The result is a workforce that recognizes threats instead of falling for them.

Data Loss Prevention

Email isn't just an inbound threat vector — it's also the most common way sensitive data leaves an organization. Proofpoint's Adaptive Email DLP uses machine learning to detect and prevent accidental or malicious data exfiltration, including misdirected emails, unauthorized file sharing, and insider threats.

The Real Cost of an Email Breach

When email security fails, the damage goes far beyond the initial attack:

• Financial loss — Wire fraud, ransomware payments, regulatory fines. The average cost of a data breach reached $4.88 million in 2024.
• Operational downtime — Recovering from a breach takes an average of 277 days. During that time, productivity plummets.
• Reputation damage — Customers and partners lose trust. For small and mid-size businesses, a breach can be an extinction event.
• Compliance exposure — HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and state privacy laws carry steep penalties for inadequate data protection.

The cost of proper email security is a fraction of the cost of a single successful attack.

What Enterprise-Grade Protection Looks Like

A complete email security strategy covers the full attack lifecycle:

1. Pre-delivery — Block threats before they reach the inbox using AI-driven detection and global threat intelligence.
2. At click time — Rewrite and sandbox URLs so every click is protected, even for emails delivered hours or days earlier.
3. Post-delivery — Automatically retract messages that become malicious after delivery. Quarantine compromised accounts.
4. Human layer — Train employees to recognize what technology misses. Report suspicious messages with one click.
5. Outbound protection — Prevent sensitive data from leaving the organization via email with adaptive DLP policies.
6. Authentication — Implement DMARC, SPF, and DKIM to prevent attackers from spoofing your domain.

Most businesses only have step one partially covered. A mature email security posture addresses all six.

We'll Get You Protected

As a Proofpoint partner, Pivvr deploys and manages enterprise-grade email security for businesses that can't afford to leave their inbox unprotected.

We handle everything — threat assessment, platform deployment, policy configuration, DMARC setup, employee training rollout, and ongoing monitoring. You get Proofpoint's full protection stack without needing an in-house security team to run it.

Whether you're replacing a basic spam filter or hardening an existing security stack, we'll build a solution sized to your business and your risk profile.

Ready to stop email threats before they stop your business? Contact us today to get started with Proofpoint email security.