Abnormal Security vs Cisco Secure Email comparison

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Microsoft Logo
12,858 views|10,247 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
Abnormal Security Logo
2,243 views|1,609 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Cisco Logo
9,348 views|6,215 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 15, 2024

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.

  • Features: Cisco Secure Email's valuable features include advanced threat protection, data loss prevention (DLP), end-to-end encryption, and secure awareness training. Abnormal Security stands out for its behavioral AI engine, advanced threat detection technology, and protection against phishing attacks.
  • Pricing and ROI: Cisco and Abnormal Security offer fair and competitive pricing with customizable licensing options. Cisco offers a cost-effective solution that protects email systems and data, blocking spam and phishing effectively. In contrast, Abnormal Security provides increased value through improved security, reduced threats, and overall protection effectiveness.
  • Room for Improvement: Cisco users are requesting a simpler user interface, faster performance, more customization options. Abnormal Security users want email analysis to better integrate with the email clients to prevent malicious emails from reaching the third-party systems before being blocked.
  • Deployment and customer support: Cisco users mention up to three months for deployment. Reviews for Abnormal Security indicate a potentially more efficient process, with some users only needing a week for both deployment and setup. Cisco users highlight the efficiency and effectiveness of the customer service team, along with quick response times. Abnormal Security customers commend the team for personalized attention and thorough assistance, emphasizing their attentiveness and fast issue resolution.

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.

To learn more, read our detailed Abnormal Security vs. Cisco Secure Email Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Since we have started using the solution, there have been fewer compromises.""Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of various email campaigns, pinpointing where they emanate from, and identifying the individuals within our organization who are affected.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable features are safe attachments and safe links.""The most valuable feature is the integration. It's a single console, so we don't have to switch around between multiple products. Another valuable feature is the ease of operations and maintenance.""It gives us visibility into threats and, for endpoints, it helps us to prioritize threats. We used to have a lack of visibility, but now our time to detect and respond has decreased.""The initial setup is straightforward. You just add the license, click it, and then you can set up the rules. It is quite simple.""Defender enables us to secure all 365-related activity from a single place. It gives us visibility into everything happening in Outlook, protecting us against phishing and other email-based threats. Defender helps us detect any suspicious behaviors.""Threat Explorer is one of the features that I very much like because it is a real-time report that allows you to identify, analyze, and trace security attacks."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pros →

"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.""The features that appeal to me most are the combination of auto-remediation and Detection 360.""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.""Initial auto-remediation allows us to auto-remediate before the email lands in the end user's inbox for a split second.""Ease of use is undoubtedly one of the most valuable features of Abnormal Security.""I have never encountered any stability issues with Abnormal.""Their ability to take things out of the mailbox and catch things much faster than users is excellent."

More Abnormal Security Pros →

"The tech engineers are very knowledgeable.""It does a great job of preventing spam, malware, and ransomware. I can only go by what people have told me and what I've seen, but I have not seen spam in a year and a half to two years in my own company mailbox. And there are not a lot of catches where it's catching something that should have gotten through, either.""Cisco Secure Email Cloud Gateway has allowed our users to be able to concentrate on the emails that they do receive. Previously, our users had to deal with nine million additional emails across the organization, which is nearly 1,000 emails per user to have to deal with a month. That's a massive amount for our staff to deal with and probably several hours of their time. We have a lot of clinical staff, being a hospital. We want to make our staff as productive as possible. By removing a lot of that spam and phishing type emails, this allows them to do their job.""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.""Cisco Secure Email is part of Cisco's extensive efforts and investments in technology, especially in the realm of cyber security. The product is one among many security solutions offered by Cisco.""Cisco Secure Email has strong inbound services.""Cisco Secure Email's most valuable is email certification."

More Cisco Secure Email Pros →

Cons
"I'd like some additional features any product can give me to protect our environment in a better way.""In one of the reports I can get the exact place where a vulnerable file resides. But for that, I need to explicitly go into the device and check. If they could include that file part in the report, without my having to go to the device itself, that would help.""The XDR dashboard has room for improvement.""Several simulation options are available within 365, and the phishing simulation could be better.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should improve the troubleshooting tools. It's unclear whether the device is blocked at the firewall level or at the device itself. The granularity needed for troubleshooting is currently lacking. From my perspective, Microsoft should address this issue to benefit many users who likely share the same sentiment.""You should be able to deploy Defender for every subscription without the need to add servers.""In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement.""They can improve their security in a way where a customer can know if all their attachments are safe or not to open through a report. The solution does its job perfectly, but it never reports to the customer whether those attachments have been stopped before or not."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Cons →

"One feature I'd love to see is outbound scanning.""The ideal scenario would be for Abnormal Security to work in tandem with Microsoft to analyze incoming emails.""The pricing for academic institutions and student mailboxes is challenging.""There could be room for improvement in enhancing integration with other cybersecurity tools.""I would like to have the ability to customize the auto-remediation feature.""The biggest pain point for us is the lack of support for on-premise email systems.""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.""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."

More Abnormal Security Cons →

"The scalability must be improved.""The solution does not have a strong outbound service. It should also integrate DLP.""Typically, in a phishing email, they try to use a name everybody's going to recognize, like the CEO's name or the CFO's name... With this appliance, the way it's designed at the moment, for us to really stop that with any level of confidence, we have to build a dictionary of all the names of the people we want it to check, and all the ways they could be spelled. My name would be in there as Phillip Collins, Phillip D. Collins, Phillip Dean Collins, Phil Collins, Phil D. Collins. There could be eight or 10 variations of my name that we'd have to put in the dictionary. There's no artificial intelligence to say "Phil Collins" could be all these other things, and to stop phishing from coming through in that way.""I would like to see sandboxing for email, where suspicious emails received by the system are analyzed through online services.""The hardware is not up to the mark. Two to three times a year we have complete downtime.""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.""Licensing is quite complicated for a number of customers, including ourselves.""We didn't get any malware, but a few phishing emails, maybe one or two, slipped in."

More Cisco Secure Email Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It's a user-base subscription."
  • "From the pricing point of view, like any other product in the market, there is scope for negotiation."
  • "Defender is a little bit more expensive as compared to others. We are in the manufacturing environment. So, we don't have a high budget for all of our endpoint devices. Its cost is a major concern for us."
  • "For licensing, it's usually a yearly package for customers who are subscribed to Office 365, but they can also pay on a monthly basis."
  • "Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."
  • "Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comes with Microsoft Windows. It is free with the operating system."
  • "The solution saves money so we have seen a return on investment."
  • "Defender for 365 comes in various plans and licenses, along with other Microsoft security solutions. Purchasing this kind of package or security bundle gives good value for money, and that's what I recommend."
  • More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The license is based on the user count, so the number of users that have an email address in the organization."
  • "Overall, we'd certainly prefer lower pricing, but Abnormal Security doesn't seem unreasonable compared to similar offerings in the market."
  • "The pricing appears fair, and they demonstrate a genuine willingness to work with us on it."
  • "Abnormal Security, on the other hand, provides the same level of functionality for just over $60,000 – that's half the price!"
  • More Abnormal Security Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "We do annual licensing for Cisco Secure Email Gatewayand SMA together, and possibly SmartNet support. Packaged together, the cost is just under $38,000."
  • "In addition to the standard licensing, there is a cost for SMARTnet as well."
  • "Pricing depends on your environment and which model you want to buy."
  • "Licensing costs depend on how many users there are. It could range between $5 and $7 per month, per user."
  • "The license was not per user, the license model was per feature. You could choose anti-virus, anti-spam, etc. It was feature-based and charged yearly."
  • "There were no other costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
  • "We were using Proofpoint and then we switched to Cisco... reportability was one of the main reasons we switched, but the biggest one was cost. If you can get an equivalent functionality for a better price it's wise to do so. That's what our primary decision came down to: We could get equivalent functionality at a lower price point."
  • "It is not that costly. We pay for the solution through a contractor and pay an annual fee."
  • More Cisco Secure Email Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of various… more »
    Top Answer:The product must provide better malware detection. The detection algorithms don't perform the way I hope they would.
    Top Answer:The features that appeal to me most are the combination of auto-remediation and Detection 360.
    Top Answer:The pricing appears fair, and they demonstrate a genuine willingness to work with us on it. The media and entertainment… more »
    Top Answer:One feature I'd love to see is outbound scanning. Currently, the system detects malicious outbound messages originating… more »
    Top Answer:The product's initial setup phase was easy.
    Top Answer:The product's price falls on the higher side when compared to the other products on the market. Whether the product… more »
    Top Answer:There are some concerns in the way the architecture is set up, making it an area where improvements are required. When… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Defender for Office 365
    Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
    Learn More
    Overview

    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect organizations against advanced threats in their email, collaboration, and productivity environments. It combines the power of Microsoft's threat intelligence, machine learning, and behavioral analytics to provide real-time protection against phishing, malware, ransomware, and other malicious attacks.

    With Microsoft Defender for Office 365, organizations can safeguard their email communication by detecting and blocking malicious links, attachments, and unsafe email content. It employs advanced anti-phishing capabilities to identify and prevent sophisticated phishing attacks that attempt to steal sensitive information or compromise user credentials.

    This solution also offers robust protection against malware and ransomware. It leverages machine learning algorithms to analyze email attachments and URLs in real-time, identifying and blocking malicious content before it reaches users' inboxes. Additionally, it provides advanced threat-hunting capabilities, allowing security teams to proactively investigate and respond to potential threats.

    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 goes beyond email protection and extends its security features to other collaboration tools like SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. It scans files and documents stored in these platforms, ensuring that they are free from malware and other malicious content. It also provides visibility into user activities, helping organizations detect and mitigate insider threats.

    Furthermore, this solution offers rich reporting and analytics capabilities, providing organizations with insights into their security posture and threat landscape. It enables security administrators to monitor and manage security incidents, track trends, and take proactive measures to enhance their overall security posture.

    Abnormal Security is a cloud-based email security platform designed to protect organizations from advanced targeted attacks, such as phishing and business email compromise (BEC), and account takeovers. Their approach is centered on using artificial intelligence (AI) and behavioral data science to detect anomalies in email activity.

    Abnormal Security is specializes in protecting email communications, detecting and preventing threats, filtering out spam and phishing emails, and blocking malicious attachments. Users rely on Abnormal Security to enhance their email security, identify and stop sophisticated attacks, safeguard sensitive information, and improve overall cybersecurity measures.

    Abnormal Security targets sophisticated attacks that traditional email security measures might miss. Their system analyzes various data points to build an understanding of email behavior within your organization. This includes emails themselves, sender and recipient information, and even business context. By understanding these patterns, they can identify anomalies that might indicate a malicious attempt. Their solution is designed for the cloud, offering quick deployment and minimal configuration. This eliminates the need for complex setup processes often associated with security software.

    Abnormal Security customers appreciate the ease of use in setting up and managing the platform, along with its ability to accurately filter out suspicious emails and prevent potential cyber threats. Abnormal Security has been praised for streamlining processes, boosting productivity, improving communication within teams, providing valuable analytics for informed decision-making, and driving success in various projects. Experience the robust security measures and benefits of Abnormal Security to safeguard your sensitive information and maintain a secure email environment.

    Cisco Secure Email is an email security solution that provides advanced protection to safeguard inboxes. The solution includes comprehensive defense from the most damaging threats so your employees and organization can remain secure at all times. In addition, it includes advanced threat defense capabilities that detect, block, and remediate threats in incoming email faster. Simultaneously, it protects an organization’s brand, prevents data loss, and secures important information in transit with end-to-end encryption.

    Cisco Secure Email Features

    Cisco Secure Email has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Advanced threat analysis: Easily identify the malicious techniques used in attacks targeting your organization. Understand the specific business risks and categorize threats to gain insight into the parts of your organization that are most vulnerable to attack.
    • Robust, actionable threat data: The solution’s searchable threat analysis data provides critical contextual insight to the attack scope and breadth and expedites remediation.
    • Real-time URL analysis: With this feature, you can drop emails with risky links automatically or block access to newly infected sites with real-time URL analysis to protect against phishing.
    • Domain-based message authentication (DMARC): Users can prevent brand abuse from attackers using their organization’s domain to carry out phishing campaigns with automation of the domain-based message authentication (DMARC) process.
    • Data loss prevention (DLP): The solution enables users to protect sensitive content in outgoing emails.

    Cisco Secure Email Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Cisco Secure Email. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Optimize your defenses: The solution is designed to protect your organization from threats that can come from multiple sources, including phishing, malware, and ransomware. It can defend against all of them with industry-leading threat intelligence that empowers you to act quickly.
    • More efficient processes: You can use the solution’s orchestration feature to simplify workflows, reduce the burden on your team, and focus on more strategic initiatives.
    • Easy-to-manage tools: The solution is built with tools that are user-friendly and help you spend less time managing alerts. They allow users to quickly detect emerging threats and quarantine suspected threats to prevent their spread.
    • Flexible license options: Cisco Secure Email provides three different license choices: Secure Email Essentials, Secure Email Advantage, and Secure Email Premier.
    • Increase spam catch rates: Cisco Secure Email blocks unwanted emails using a multilayered scanning architecture.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Cisco Secure Email is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it has an intuitive interface, reputation filtering, few false positives, and great protection features.

    Enrique J., Owner at Jolly Security Inc., says, "It has an intuitive, clear graphical interface where you can deploy your policies and understand the overall flow. The most valuable feature is reputation filtering.”

    The solution has a “low rate of false positives, good support, and it integrates well with other Cisco security products,” explains Mark R., IT Admin / Manager at a retailer.

    PeerSpot user Charles N., Network Security Engineer at Galaxy Backbone Ltd., mentions, “It is doing its work. It is doing what it was actually designed to do. They have a lot of features such as Advanced Malware Protection, Email Protection, Advanced Phishing Protection, Antispam, Antivirus, and Outbreak Filters.”

    Sample Customers
    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
    Foot Lcoker, Xerox, Liberty Mutual, Mattel, Boston Scientific
    SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company16%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Energy/Utilities Company13%
    Consumer Goods Company13%
    Media Company13%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    Retailer10%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Educational Organization16%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business42%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise42%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business30%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise51%
    REVIEWERS
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise75%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise24%
    Large Enterprise55%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise37%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise28%
    Large Enterprise49%
    Buyer's Guide
    Abnormal Security vs. Cisco Secure Email
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Abnormal Security vs. Cisco Secure Email and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Abnormal Security is ranked 9th in Email Security with 8 reviews while Cisco Secure Email is ranked 2nd in Email Security with 55 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 Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), 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.

    See our list of best Email Security vendors.

    We monitor all Email Security reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.