Gartner defines an email security solution as a product that secures email infrastructure. Its primary purpose is to protect against malicious messages (phishing, social engineering, malware) or unsolicited messages (spam, marketing). Other functions include email data protection; domain-based message authentication, reporting and conformance (DMARC); investigation; and remediation through a dedicated console. Email security solutions may also support nonemail collaboration tools, such as those for document management and instant messaging. Email security tools protect an organization’s email from spam, phishing, malware attacks, account takeover and data loss. They may provide capabilities for data loss prevention, encryption, domain authentication and security education, as well as advanced protections against business email compromise. Email security platforms give cybersecurity teams visibility into email-related security incidents, support investigation and automated remediation, and enable management of both inbound and outbound email delivery. Email security solutions often integrate with other network, identity and endpoint security controls, and may also support collaboration tools and email relay capabilities.
Information-centric security products focus on content, more than device, and apply encryption and authentication to block file access and movement from unauthorized people or circumstances. Endpoint systems are porous, mistakenly sharing data is easy, and users can be careless. Information-centric security is the last line of defense for data when firewalls, anti-malware tools, best practices and other traditional defenses fail. The scope of this market is the protection of stored information, commonly referred to as data at rest. The protection of data at rest in some ways takes precedence, because the interconnectedness of today’s systems often undermines network protections. In other words, high-value information should be protected “at rest” to prevent the risk of a breach caused by an unexpected data in motion event.