Traditional email security models are outdated and ineffective for modern threats
Email is still the number one way attackers get into a system. That’s backed by repeated breach reports year after year. But if you look at the tools most companies still use for email security, they’re built on the same principles as antivirus software from the 1990s. Those tools catch obvious threats. They block spam. They shut down the basic stuff. But they miss the threats that matter today.
Your corporate inbox is a hub for links to cloud storage, third-party apps using OAuth tokens, calendars, and sensitive internal threads that go back years. Threats today are dynamic, embedded in those live integrations. Yet most email defenses operate only at the moment a message arrives, acting as if there’s nothing more to worry about after delivery. That assumption is wrong.
Modern attackers avoid traditional detection. They make payload-less messages, no malware attached, just a clever request that tricks someone into giving up credentials. Or they send links that seem harmless when delivered but become malicious later. Once they get access, they move fast across OAuth grants, shared content, and calendar invites. The attack spreads through your entire cloud workspace. By then, your Secure Email Gateway is silent. It doesn’t even see the real problem.
To keep up, your email security strategy has to evolve. You don’t need a better spam filter. You need visibility. You need to know what’s happening after the message lands. Just like we moved away from signature-based antivirus toward proactive endpoint monitoring, it’s time to move from pre-delivery-only defenses to continuous monitoring and fast response across your email ecosystem.
Email security should adopt endpoint detection and response-like capabilities
The shift that happened on the endpoint needs to happen in email. Ten years ago, traditional antivirus solutions weren’t cutting it anymore. So we built Endpoint Detection and Response, EDR, that gave security teams visibility into process activity, allowed for real-time isolation, and could roll back the damage. That changed everything.
Email security is behind. The same problems exist, and they’re growing. Once an attacker gets into a mailbox, they’re not just sitting there. They’re extracting everything they can: shared files, chats, contacts, then moving laterally without being touched by your email filters. By the time security notices, they’ve already done damage.
We need to bring the same EDR mindset to the inbox. That means assuming a breach will happen, then putting systems in place that let you see what attackers did and respond fast. If someone creates a risky inbox rule or a suspicious OAuth grant, the system should flag that. If credentials are stolen, you should know who read what, when, and act before they move further. That’s how you contain threats.
This is about building systems that respond in seconds, not days. Imagine seeing an impossible sign-in right after someone opens a phishing email, and automatically triggering a multi-factor test or locking the account. That’s what modern protection looks like. Fast. Precise. Simple to manage.
This is where email security is going, and where your organization should already be. You’re not securing email anymore. You’re securing a live cloud workspace, and you need tools that treat it that way.
Modern cloud APIs enable advanced post-delivery email security defenses
The infrastructure needed to solve modern email security problems already exists. Microsoft Graph and Google Workspace APIs give direct access to what security teams need: mailbox audit logs, file sharing events, OAuth scopes, and sign-in activity. These APIs were built to help administrators control and monitor their environments, and they’ve opened the door for a new level of defense.
With these APIs, you’re not waiting for a user to flag an issue or relying on static filters to guess intent. You can see real actions, the creation of a new mail rule, rapid file-sharing behavior, or an atypical sign-in from a foreign location. Then you can respond immediately: revoke access, reset a token, delete the message, even if it was already delivered.
What matters here is speed and control. These capabilities aren’t theoretical. They’re already functioning behind the scenes in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. They just weren’t being used properly for security, until now.
Security platforms that leverage these APIs remove dependence on complex mail routing or invasive endpoint agents. They work with the environment as it is, in real-time, and at scale. You’re not building another layer of complexity. You’re unlocking latent capabilities native to your existing cloud platform, and turning them into powerful security actions you control.
An EDR-style email security approach
For most companies, especially small and mid-sized businesses, the security team isn’t large. In some cases, there’s only one person handling compliance, vulnerability management, and incident response all at once. That kind of lean operation doesn’t have the time, or tolerance, for fragmented security tools that don’t talk to each other.
The reality is that relying on a separate SEG, DLP tools, SaaS monitoring systems, and manual playbooks creates unnecessary friction. It slows down response time, increases cost, and introduces gaps. An EDR-style email security solution can eliminate all of that. It unifies these functions into one surface, one place to monitor, detect, and act.
There are no mail flow changes, no browser extensions, and no extra steps. When an alert goes off, it already includes the context, timeline, and access details needed to make a fast decision. That efficiency matters when it’s just one or two people keeping the system secure.
It also creates clarity. Instead of reporting vague metrics like “spam catch rate,” you can track performance in meaningful terms: How long did it take to detect the breach? How many users accessed exposed data? How quickly was access revoked? These are the metrics boards care about. They represent actual risk reduction. And they tell you, in real terms, how well your security strategy is working.
Transitioning to a modern email defense system
This isn’t about deploying a major infrastructure overhaul. You don’t need a massive spend or a multi-year project plan. You can start with what you already have, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and begin enabling the native visibility features they provide.
Audit logs are already there. Start reviewing them. Pull mailbox configuration changes, OAuth grants, and sign-in activity into your SIEM or central log system. That gives you the initial signal layer. From there, look for common signs of compromise, unexpected inbox rules, unusual file sharing, unfamiliar sign-in locations.
Testing response is the next step. Both Google and Microsoft offer APIs to pull messages out of inboxes, even after delivery. Run simulations. Validate speed. Then build simple, automated responses for the most common threats. Focus on the cases that have clear indicators and high impact.
Finally, evaluate platforms that are API-first. Don’t just assess them based on filtering capability. Look at how comprehensively they map risk, how quickly they can trigger response, and how well they integrate into your existing workflow. The best platforms reduce workload while strengthening response. They don’t add complexity, they eliminate it.
Each of these steps moves you forward. Each one cuts risk. If you monitor the right signals early, you don’t end up in reactive mode later. And you get transparency, actual data about compromise timelines, mitigation speed, and residual exposure you can use to inform the board and the business.
Material security exemplifies the modern approach to email protection
Material Security is built specifically for this reality, it accepts that some attacks will get through and focuses entirely on closing the window between breach and containment. It integrates directly with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace through their APIs, without disrupting mail flow or requiring endpoint agents.
Once deployed, Material pulls real-time telemetry from every inbox: login activity, forward rules, sharing links, OAuth grants. It wraps sensitive mail with zero-knowledge encryption, forcing users to reauthenticate before viewing. That neutralizes credentials stolen in a phishing attempt, no access without MFA, even post-compromise.
Material doesn’t wait on user reports. It sees the threat activity, like an unusual sign-in followed by mass sharing, and triggers an automated playbook before damage spreads. It’s not trying to guess intent. It responds based on behavior, speed, and known compromise patterns.
All of this runs in a single, searchable interface. Security leaders don’t need to jump between tools or thread together logs to build a timeline. With Material, you can see who accessed what, when, and respond with confidence in real time. That saves hours per incident, and in a breach, hours matter.
For organizations with lean security teams, that’s critical. And for larger enterprises, it means consistent execution at scale. The core benefit is simple: faster detection, faster containment, and fewer blind spots. If your business runs on cloud email, and most do, then this is the level of control and visibility you should expect by default.
Main highlights
- Legacy models are failing modern threats: Email filters built for spam and malware can’t detect modern attacks like credential theft or payload-free BEC. Leaders should reassess email defenses and reject outdated, pre-delivery-only tools.
- Post-delivery control is non-negotiable: Attacks today succeed after message delivery. Security strategy must shift to assume breach and focus on fast detection, forensic visibility, and automated containment.
- Cloud APIs unlock new defense layers: Microsoft and Google APIs provide the telemetry and control needed for real-time response. Security leaders should ensure their teams are actively leveraging these existing capabilities.
- Lean teams need consolidated tools: Fragmented controls slow response and expose risk. Executives should prioritize all-in-one solutions that cut noise, automate decisions, and deliver outcome-based metrics.
- Modernization can start small: Teams don’t need major overhauls to improve. Start by enabling native logging, centralizing telemetry, and piloting automated message remediation inside the current stack.
- Material security shows what’s possible: Their approach proves that real-time visibility, containment, and encryption can be deployed fast and without disrupting mail flow. Consider outcome-driven platforms that deliver measurable reductions in breach impact.
