Office 365 in the cloud has some great advantages. Microsoft manages the software updates, making it easier for the IT support services. You can collaborate in real time using different mobile devices and PCs.
According to Adalloms annual Cloud Usage Risk Report, Box, Office 365, Salesforce, and Google Apps constitute the majority of cloud applications in use today. It is inevitable that the move to the cloud will continue. Licensing for the upcoming Windows 10 enterprise will be per-user instead of per-device. This will spur the use of virtual desktop integration (VDI), where your computer will reside not on your desk, but in the cloud.
But, let's face it, moving applications and data to cloud services exposes them to a larger variety of malware. As a result, many clients implement SpamTitan in conjunction with Office 365 to improve security and block more spam and malware. Installing a third-party spam filtering solution like SpamTitan will augment your spam filtering for Office 365. This is a better choice than using Microsoft’s Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), which are available to Office 365 users.
Email security for Office 365
As ransomware and phishing attacks increase, Office 365 has become a primary target, making it vital for IT professionals to take proactive steps with O365 email security and "hack-proof" their environments. A comprehensive 2016 study by Skyhigh Networks found that 71.4 percent of corporate Office 365 users have at least one compromised account each month. The research was based on a survey of 600 enterprises and 27 million users. Office 365 is an example of the success and acceptance of the cloud. It is the most widely used enterprise cloud service in the world, boasting more than 70 million active users. According to Gartner, less than 10% of enterprises use Office 365 email services, although they have an 80% market share for large public companies that use cloud-based email services.
Office 365 comes in a variety of flavors. Only the Enterprise versions offer beefed-up security. Office 365 mail security gateways cloud-based protection, but SpamTitan is more effective in blocking spam. It blocks over 99.9% of spam with a false positive rate of less than 0.03%. And SpamTitan provides double antivirus engines, Kaspersky Lab and Clam AV, to protect against malware.
There is one big problem with being the big player in the cloud email space – you become the #1 target for hackers and cybercriminals. Ironically, Microsoft finds themselves the victims of their own success in the same way as they have for their operating systems over the years. When most people use the same operating system, hackers can simply concentrate on that OS and not waste time on others.
Dedicated mail filtering with SpamTitan
As you know, the threat landscape is constantly evolving with new threats emerging everyday. SpamTitan offers protection from the most current threats. Moreover, for us mail filtering is not just another option on a long list services; it is our core offering. This focus results in a higher overall catch rate and protection rate than clients experience from vendors who are trying to be "all things to all people".
Our developers focus on providing a feature rich and granular mail filtering solution. Administrators can configure settings for the entire company, but also users can fine-tune filters. No two businesses are the same; mails that one company may regard as legitimate e-mail another company may regard as spam. SpamTitan's advanced features such as Advanced Content Control filter enable our engineers to apply a specific rule set to your mail flow. You see the mails you need to see and not the ones you don't! This level of customization is not available on in Office 365 standard filtering.
Data Loss Prevention for email and files
Only the most expensive version of Office 365, Enterprise E3, offers data loss prevention for email and files. But business continuity is a concern for businesses of all sizes. SpamTitan Private Cloud infrastructure provides back up for your mail server. SpamTitan maintains a 2-node private cluster to process mail; if one node fails, the other node takes over to continue processing email. Furthermore, each node is located in a different data center, offering optimal back up. SpamTitan Private Cloud also uses Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL), requiring identification upon connecting to the network, before any data is exchanged.
Even if you choose to maintain your own mail server,SpamTitan offers two business continuity features:
- If your private mail server is unavailable, SpamTitan holds all mails in a deferred queue for 5 days by default, but this value can be increased from the web interface. As soon as your mail server resumes operation, mail is forwarded to all recipients.
- SpamTitan can store copies of clean e-mail for a set period of time and allow end users to view their e-mail via a personal portal. This is handy especially if your mail server is not available. End users will not miss important mail.
Phishing Scams
I’m sure you’ve heard about the recent Google Docs phishing scam that affected over 1 million Gmail users – SpamTitan had 100% success rate in defending our users against this threat. It’s vital you do everything possible to prevent these attacks reaching your users inboxes. It’s not a question of if there will be another damaging ransomware attack; it’s a question of when.
SpamTitan complements Office 365 features
This article outlines some reasons that companies use SpamTitan along with an Office 365 subscription, including:
- A greater level of protection.
- A higher spam catch rate.
- A greater level of customization/granularity.
- Better outbound mail controls.
- Business continuity.
If, despite Microsoft's efforts, you are unhappy with the volume of spam emails avoiding detection by the spam filter on Office 365, why not take advantage of a free trial of SpamTitan. This free trial gives you access to all features so you can realistically monitor the impact on the detection of spam emails.
Contact us about TitanHQ today to see how we can meet your unique business needs, and further secure your Office 365 environment. If you’d like to get your hands on our SpamTitan Office365 setup guide please contact us and we'll send that your way.
** UPDATE 25/09/2018:
Read our brand new, just released 2018 report on overcomimg the Email Security Weaknesses in O365.
Recent research by Osterman identifies that Microsoft’s EOP can detect 100% of all known viruses with updates every 15 minutes. However, the research found it to be less effective against unknown or new malware delivered by email. System Administrators implementing Office 365 need to make sure it’s secure by layering in a dedicated secure messaging and spam filtering solution like SpamTitan to protect against advanced persistent threats. To protect against advanced threats you need advanced protection.
Read the free Office 365 Security report here
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