Comprehensive software reviews to make better IT decisions
The Changing Face of Email Security: Avanan Goes Beyond the Inbox to Integrate With O365
Email security gateways (ESGs) protect the perimeter of your email environment. While they help filter out spam, prevent data loss, and inspect for malicious content, they can be easily bypassed. Avanan has patented an API-based approach that sits inside the collaboration suite environment (such as Office 365) to build a perimeter around individual users – protecting all internal, external, and outbound communication, including both email and file-sharing.
Avanan’s solution installs via API connection and de-necessitates the MX record change required by ESGs, rendering it invisible to hackers. Differing from most ESG implementations, Avanan sits behind default security layers (e.g. EOP). Instead of replacing default security as ESGs do, Avanan adds security to the default layers and utilizes the spam, graymail, and basic threat detections therein.
The in-line API installs as an app and extends the “firewall for your inbox” capability to include post-delivery forensics, so malicious links or business email compromise-type attacks can be pulled from all inboxes by an administrator from a simple interface.
Image: In-line email scanning, which sits behind default security layers, provided by Avanan.
The platform also includes UEBA capabilities tailored specifically to the SaaS platforms it protects, to flag suspicious logins, unusual user behavior, and insecure configuration changes.
Our Take
No longer confined to your email inbox, Avanan redefines the scope of email security to include the entire collaboration suite. As a single O365 account can grant access to a wealth of organizational information, Avanan bridges the security gap between your inbox and O365 cloud access. While protecting all O365 applications and other lines of communication from phishing, malware, and data leakage, a huge advantage that the solution offers is enhanced protection to mobile workforces that work on personal devices, at a time when the services are cloud-based and do not connect to a company VPN. From a strategic standpoint, if Microsoft Office 365 collaboration tools are highly leveraged within your business operations, and email security and cloud file-sharing is an area of concern (highly likely), consider checking out the Avanan email security platform to secure the entire suite.