In June 2022, the Perception Point team received some exciting news: SE Labs had released their most recent Email Security Services (ESS): Enterprise 2022 Q2 report.
Knowing the value that our product brings customers and the strength of our advanced threat detection capabilities, the results weren’t shocking. We achieved a perfect score, with a 100% total accuracy rate, 100% detection rate, and 0% false positive rate. For the second time in a row, we ranked #1 and earned SE Labs’ AAA rating for our unparalleled email security services and protection.
For a company of our stature, it is always humbling to receive recognition like this. Independent testing allows us to validate our technology and hard work against established competitors. In this report, Perception Point outperformed Fortinet FortiMail Cloud Email Security, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, and Google Workspace Enterprise. What’s most curious, however, is how we did it. Let’s explore.
Who we are
At our core, Perception Point is a company that cares deeply about detection and threat prevention. We care about it so much, in fact, that our platform is constructed to deliver the best security for any threat across not only email, but also web browsers and cloud collaboration apps..
By leveraging our multi-layered platform, we are able to offer unprecedented cyber threat detection and prevention of APTs, phishing, malware, spam, BEC, ATO attacks, and more. As a bonus, all this is delivered with the speed, scale, and flexibility of the cloud.
But we don’t stop there.
We provide a fully managed Incident Response service, delivered as an integral part of the solution at no added cost, that manages all incidents, optimizes detection engines and handles end-user requests, drastically reducing the strain on SOC teams, saving up to 75% of their email security efforts.
In short, we take protecting our customers pretty seriously.
But enough about us, let’s get into the SE Labs test.
Why test?
Third party testing reaffirms our customers’ confidence in our product and in their security. It also serves as an important tool for potential buyers. Independent testing adds legitimacy to other tools in the buying process like ROI calculation and running a POC.
How SE Labs tests
Now that you know why we test, let’s get into the specifics of the test itself.
SE Labs performed a series of simulated cyberattacks (pen tests) to assess the performance of email security services. According to the report, “Legitimate messages were also sent through the services to ensure that security settings were balanced with reasonable usability.”
The SE Labs tests were based on current, existing threats to test how email security services would operate in the real world. The main attack categories were business email compromise (BEC), phishing, social engineering, and malware. A range of industries were targeted, including energy, government, financial, retail, and hospitality. Compounded with the legitimate emails, these conditions created an ideal testing environment.
SE Labs results
Perception Point earned top marks in every category. That in itself is an achievement. But to truly understand the depth of this accomplishment, it is important to also look at our competitors’ results.
At the beginning of this process, there were many vendors in the testing pool. Yet as the rigorous tests wore on, only four vendors chose to go public with SE Labs’ findings.
If you refer to the table below, you can see the overall results for the final participants. Perception Point was the only vendor to achieve a 100% total accuracy rating, and Fortinet and Microsoft Defender also received SE Labs AAA awards. Let’s unpack this.
Fortinet’s total accuracy rating was 95% and Microsoft Defender followed with 89%. While these scores may seem good, especially when accompanied by their triple-A awards, when it comes to cybersecurity every missed attack counts, because all it takes is one click.
In the threat detection breakdown, Perception Point detected all threats; Microsoft Defender missed 4; Fortinet missed 6. Both Microsoft Defender and Fortinet failed to prevent BEC attacks. While they managed to stop most BEC attacks, “most” isn’t enough to protect an organization against an advanced attack.
If you have an email security service, you shouldn’t have to worry about the 5% or 11% chance that a cyberattack will find its way into your inbox. Rather, you should be assured that your organization is safe and secure regardless of the threat or channel.
Moreover, your email security solution shouldn’t flag a legitimate email as malicious. False positives jeopardize your business operations and add a greater burden to your SOC team. Most organizations are experiencing difficulties in managing incident response, due to lack of skilled professionals, inability of their SOC teams to support incidents in a timely manner, and other factors. False positives require SOC investigation and handling, which in many cases is not done quickly enough. This can negatively impact communications and business processes.
Our takeaways
Participating in the SE Labs Email Security Services (ESS): 2022 Q2 test was a great opportunity for us to learn about our service in the context of competitors. We are proud of our results but we also know that we aren’t done. As attackers become more sophisticated in their techniques, it is our responsibility to innovate new ways to protect our customers. Getting a triple-A award from SE Labs is motivation for us to stay at the top, ahead of attackers (and our competition).
Learn more about our Advanced Email Security service here or book a demo today!
Read the SE Labs’ full report here.
