Cisco Secure Email is valuable for its advanced threat protection capabilities, and customization options, but have concerns about complexity, performance, and customization limitations. On the other hand, Abnormal Security is praised for its strong email security, and behavioral AI engine, but users have noted the need for better integration with email platforms.
The summary above is based on 39 interviews we conducted recently with Cisco Secure Email and Abnormal Security users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable features are safe attachments and safe links."
"Defender is a SaaS platform, so it offers more flexibility. Managing the permissions is easier. The solution's automated detection and response features are scalable."
"I would say that 90% of the spam and phishing attack emails get blocked right off the bat."
"Some of the valuable features on the email side are anti-phishing, anti-malware, and Safe Links."
"The most valuable feature is protection against malicious links, fishing, and impersonation. You can train people to be aware of these threats, but they're not always careful. When they're using their phones between meetings, they click on a link, and it's game over."
"It also gives the vulnerability status according to the versions you have selected. Let's say you have Google Chrome. It mentions the versions it has, and it updates. Within two hours of an update, it is reflected in the dashboard. That's really nice to have."
"Our customers are satisfied with Defender for 365 because Microsoft products are easy to use and customize to meet the client's needs. Everything is in one place, so we can adjust policies as needed for phishing, DLP, ATP, or any other security features that our clients want to apply."
"The email protection is excellent, especially in terms of anti-phishing policies."
"One of the things that I love about them is that the setup and installation are super easy. All you do is give them access to your Microsoft 365 tenant, and through APIs, they are able to do their work. They are doing all this through APIs, so you do not have to install the software and take a month to get it all set up to even see the value of the solution. You could be up and running in less than an hour."
"It does some really cool stuff that other tools aren't doing. We found it to be really effective, and the AI/ML functionality is really what differentiates them."
"Ease of use is undoubtedly one of the most valuable features of Abnormal Security."
"Initial auto-remediation allows us to auto-remediate before the email lands in the end user's inbox for a split second."
"What I like about Abnormal Security is that it notifies me if any of my partners or suppliers are experiencing a security breach by analyzing their database and identifying potential cyber threats."
"I have never encountered any stability issues with Abnormal."
"The features that appeal to me most are the combination of auto-remediation and Detection 360."
"Their ability to take things out of the mailbox and catch things much faster than users is excellent."
"It blocks bulk marketing messages, graymail, spam, and provides advanced malware protection."
"Cisco Secure Email's most valuable is email certification."
"There is a huge return compared to if we didn't have a gateway appliance, as far as blocking malicious emails."
"The tool comes with AI features. It is good for clients who already use Cisco products due to integration."
"There were detailed logs available. That was a seriously good feature... It turns out these were actually spoof emails that came into our environment. I got to know about them from the log system."
"We like the in-built features, like the email filtering based on the IP and domain. Cisco has its own blacklisted domains and IPs, which is very good. This filters around 70 percent of emails from spam, and we are seeing fewer false positives with this."
"Spam controls are excellent because they are a powerful feature that operates almost effortlessly."
"The system provides our service desk with the means to troubleshoot email delivery issues with ease."
"We need to be able to whitelist data at the backend."
"The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement."
"Several simulation options are available within 365, and the phishing simulation could be better."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 must improve the overall management style, including the GUI. It also needs to change the filters so that it is easy to whitelist and blacklist data."
"One area for improvement is support, in terms of being able to reach them and, especially, technical support for configuration."
"Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features."
"Too many false positives and lacks an accurate capability to detect malicious SharePoint sites."
"The custom alerts have to improve a lot."
"When we're working on something as engineers, and we find an idea or a method of doing something that would be greatly improved by doing it another way, there should be an ability for me to click the ideas button, type in an idea that I have, and submit it to a product review team or developers to have them think through the process a little bit more."
"One feature I'd love to see is outbound scanning."
"There could be room for improvement in enhancing integration with other cybersecurity tools."
"The ideal scenario would be for Abnormal Security to work in tandem with Microsoft to analyze incoming emails."
"I, as such, do not have anything that I do not like or would like to add, but you could argue that because they are doing it API-based, there is a chance that something could slip through temporarily before they are able to pull it out. In theory, it could happen just because of the nature of the system. They are not in line with the delivery of the mail. They are kind of asynchronous, which is a pro as well as a con. If it is synchronous, then I know it would always stop them, but because it is asynchronous, things could get through temporarily or because of some system issues on the Microsoft side or their side. It is the nature of the beast, but it is a little bit of a con."
"I would like to have the ability to customize the auto-remediation feature."
"The pricing for academic institutions and student mailboxes is challenging."
"The biggest pain point for us is the lack of support for on-premise email systems."
"We have Microsoft and we have the E5 licenses, they have more EDR responses on certain emails. That's something that Cisco ESA on the cloud doesn't have. They don't do anything about MITRE attacks. They only detect if there is a malicious email or a threat and they remove it."
"The solution does not have a strong outbound service. It should also integrate DLP."
"Licensing is quite complicated for a number of customers, including ourselves."
"We cannot manage multiple devices from a single UI."
"We didn't get any malware, but a few phishing emails, maybe one or two, slipped in."
"In future releases, I would like to see two main improvements come to mind. First, the current solution requires maintaining two separate operating systems for FTD, which can be cumbersome. I'd love to see a single operating system for the FTD box."
"My opinion on the licensing of this solution is that it is a mess that needs sorting out. I am not particularly bothered by pricing as I administer it and make recommendations for people to buy or not to buy."
"They can do it better with web links, with the URLs. They have a technology called Outbreak but it doesn't work as well as we would like."
More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pricing and Cost Advice →
Abnormal Security is ranked 10th in Email Security with 8 reviews while Cisco Secure Email is ranked 2nd in Email Security with 56 reviews. Abnormal Security is rated 9.6, while Cisco Secure Email is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Abnormal Security writes "Provides comprehensive email security management, effective in detecting a wide range of email threats". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cisco Secure Email writes "Has effortless spam control, improves security posture, and frees up our IT department's time". Abnormal Security is most compared with Mimecast Email Security, Egress Intelligent Email Security, Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Avanan and Sublime Security, whereas Cisco Secure Email is most compared with Trellix Collaboration Security, Fortinet FortiMail, Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Proofpoint Email Protection and Mimecast Email Security. See our Abnormal Security vs. Cisco Secure Email report.
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