Why AI is the Key to Stopping Modern Email Threats
This white paper by Abnormal AI examines the decline of traditional Secure Email Gateways (SEGs) and the shift toward AI-driven, cloud-native email security. Once the cornerstone of email defense, SEGs are increasingly ineffective in protecting against modern, socially engineered threats such as business email compromise (BEC) and advanced phishing attacks.
As organizations move to cloud platforms like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, reliance on SEGs introduces complexity and redundancy—often requiring the disabling of built-in security features. Even top SEG providers only block about 99% of spam and known malware, leaving a critical gap for unknown and sophisticated threats.
Abnormal’s behavioral AI solution addresses this gap by integrating directly via API to detect anomalies in communication patterns, automate threat mitigation, and eliminate the need for legacy SEGs. Its SEG Migration Program has helped hundreds of enterprises transition to this modern model, reducing costs and security overhead while enhancing protection.
The paper concludes that legacy SEGs are obsolete in the AI era—effective defense now requires adaptive, behavior-based systems capable of identifying the final 1% of advanced email threats.