Electronic mail remains to be probably the most dependable means for an attacker to get inside your group. Not as a result of perimeter defences are weak — however as a result of e mail is designed to be opened. The actual query for any safety staff isn’t whether or not threats arrive within the inbox, however whether or not they get stopped earlier than anybody can act on them.
Cisco Safe Electronic mail Menace Protection (ETD) is constructed round that premise: intercept threats on the level of supply, decisively, with out disrupting the move of professional communication. That promise was not too long ago independently validated. ETD earned the AAA award — the best attainable score — within the Might 2026 SE Labs Superior Electronic mail Safety Analysis, attaining a 94% Complete Accuracy Ranking throughout all examined menace classes.
The Menace Panorama ETD Is Designed For
Trendy e mail assaults don’t arrive in a single taste. The organizations we defend face a continuing mixture of commodity phishing, evolving malware supply, and the far more durable drawback of Enterprise Electronic mail Compromise — assaults that carry no payload, no malicious hyperlink, only a convincing request from somebody who appears to be like precisely like a trusted contact.
The impartial analysis examined ETD in opposition to all 4 of those classes concurrently, utilizing actual assault strategies modeled on lively menace teams — from APT29’s ransomware-laden PDF campaigns concentrating on analysis establishments, to FIN7’s backdoor malware concentrating on retail and finance, to North Korea’s AppleJeus group working drive-by obtain assaults in opposition to the cryptocurrency sector. These are usually not theoretical situations. They’re the precise strategies used in opposition to actual organizations right now.
Efficiency Throughout Each Menace Class
ETD detected 478 of 486 threats — a 98% detection price. Extra importantly, each single menace ETD detected was additionally stopped or blocked earlier than it may attain the consumer. Detection with out motion isn’t safety. ETD does each.
Phishing & Social Engineering — Zero Inbox Compromise
Phishing and social engineering collectively signify the best quantity of assaults most organizations face. In opposition to 300 phishing makes an attempt — together with QR code-based quishing and evasion strategies utilizing Google Translation hyperlinks — ETD achieved 100% safety. Each e mail was quarantined underneath admin management or stopped outright. Not one reached an inbox.
The identical consequence held throughout 100 social engineering samples: FBI impersonation scams, faux fee urgency requests, lottery fraud, fund beneficiary scams. Each one quarantined. None accessible to finish customers.
That is the place ETD delivers probably the most speedy, measurable worth for safety groups. The very best-volume assault classes are utterly neutralised — decreasing alert fatigue, eliminating consumer threat publicity, and eradicating the necessity for subject-line warnings that workers study to disregard.
Malware — 97% Stopped In opposition to Nation-State Methods
Malware supply through e mail is a unique problem: evasive, polymorphic, and more and more tied to stylish menace actors. In opposition to 60 malware samples — spanning ransomware supply from APT29 and APT-C-36, C2 backdoors from Gamaredon and Higaisa, and the FIN7 shellcode campaigns — ETD stopped 58. 22 had been stopped silently, 8 had been rejected with sender notification, and 28 had been quarantined for admin evaluation.
2 emails did attain the inbox. We’re clear about that. In each circumstances these had been superior, evasive samples. The 97% safety price in opposition to nation-state-grade malware supply strategies is a robust end result — and the accuracy score displays the two misses with acceptable penalty factors.
For organizations in power, monetary providers, authorities, and retail — the first targets of the menace teams examined right here — a 97% block price in opposition to strategies particularly designed to evade detection represents a big discount in breach threat.
Enterprise Electronic mail Compromise — The Hardest Downside in Electronic mail Safety
BEC deserves a frank dialog. It’s the hardest assault class in e mail safety — for any vendor, any product, any structure. These assaults carry no malware. No phishing hyperlink. No attachment. A BEC e mail is, technically, a clear message. The menace is solely within the intent: impersonating a CEO to authorise a wire switch, or a provider to redirect a fee.
In opposition to 26 BEC samples — constructed utilizing look-alike domains and simulated provider relationships to imitate real-world assaults — ETD caught 20. That could be a 77% detection price: 3 stopped, 13 quarantined, 1 rejected, 2 neutralised by means of content material enhancing, and 1 appropriately routed to junk. 6 reached the inbox.
77% is an sincere quantity, and it’s meaningfully forward of what unprotected Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace will catch on their very own. However no e mail safety product eliminates BEC solely. We suggest pairing ETD’s detection capabilities with government verification workflows for high-value monetary requests — a layered strategy that addresses the hole that expertise alone can’t shut.
Safety That Doesn’t Get within the Manner
A safety rating solely tells a part of the story. A system aggressive sufficient to dam all the pieces would rating completely on threats — and destroy productiveness within the course of. The stability between safety and value is the place many merchandise fall brief.
Of 110 professional messages despatched by means of ETD throughout the analysis, 99 arrived instantly within the inbox with none modification. 11 had been routed to junk — accessible to customers, not misplaced. Zero professional emails had been blocked outright.
0 professional emails blocked. Each message remained accessible. The 11 routed to junk had been reachable — a minor inconvenience, not a misplaced communication.
This stability — 98% menace detection alongside zero onerous false positives — is what the 94% Complete Accuracy Ranking displays. It’s not a single metric optimised in isolation. It’s the mixed rating of catching threats decisively and conserving the inbox useful.
What Unbiased Validation Means for Your Safety Technique
Each e mail safety vendor publishes detection charges. What impartial testing supplies is one thing a datasheet can’t: validation underneath adversarial situations, with actual menace intelligence, by a company with no stake within the consequence.
The analysis used documented assault strategies from menace teams actively concentrating on governments, monetary establishments, and significant infrastructure. ETD’s efficiency in that context — not in a lab, not with sanitised samples — is probably the most dependable indicator of the way it will carry out in your atmosphere.
The AAA score displays well-rounded efficiency throughout the total menace spectrum: decisive on high-volume threats, sturdy in opposition to refined malware, sincere in regards to the limits of expertise in opposition to BEC, and cautious to not over-block professional communication. That’s the usual we maintain ourselves to — and the usual that impartial analysis confirms we’re assembly.
Learn the full report for extra perception into ETD’s complete e mail safety capabilities.
All efficiency information sourced from the SE Labs Superior Safety Take a look at Report — Electronic mail (Safety), Cisco Safe Electronic mail Menace Protection, Might 2026 (v1.0). Take a look at performed 1–7 April 2026. SE Labs Ltd, ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Licensed.