Barracuda Networks enhances AI email protection for M365 users

Barracuda Networks has announced increased efficacy and additional AI innovation for its Email Protection platform, enhancing defenses against emerging threats. As per Barracuda's research, AI-enabled email protection helps Microsoft 365 customers block 70% more business email compromise (BEC) attacks than when relying solely on native security. However, Microsoft 365's native security alone has a miss rate of 47%.

Barracuda's Email Protection capabilities provide a comprehensive defence mechanism, complementing Microsoft 365's native security, to block sophisticated email attacks. These AI-enabled solutions block 99.2% of targeted phishing attacks without the need for manual configurations, thereby allowing customers and managed service providers to save time and IT resources.

Neal Bradbury, Chief Product Officer, Barracuda, stated, "Our email protection solutions support both managed service providers and end-user customers, and we continue to innovate to ensure customers are equipped to combat threats such as business email compromise with unparalleled efficacy."

Integrating AI models, Barracuda Email Protection continually releases new classifiers to combat emerging and novel threats. Barracuda's analysis shows that 99.2% of targeted phishing attacks are blocked by their AI-enabled solutions, negating the need for manual configuration and saving customers and managed service providers valuable time and resources.

Increased investment in machine learning has resulted in significant improvements in detection efficacy. Moreover, new innovations have enhanced user experience and reporting, data loss engine, and provided data residency support for international customers. Neil Bradbury remarked, "At Barracuda, we are committed to helping customers with the best defenses for complex and evolving threats. We've been investing in AI since 2017, and this enables us to block millions of additional threats every day."

In addition to increased efficacy, Barracuda Email Protection now offers machine learning classifiers to augment its detection capabilities. The machine learning capability is regularly updated with new data to remain effective and adaptive to evolving threats. This has resulted in the blockage of an additional 2.3 million attacks each day, and a 150% increase in the detection of spoofing attacks.

Barracuda has also included new real-time reporting capabilities to offer actionable threat intelligence, enabling customers to understand swiftly threats targeting their organisations and establish a more proactive security approach.

International expansion efforts are underway, with Barracuda launching Data Inspector and Barracuda Cloud Archiving in India to help navigate the country's rapidly growing digital economy and evolving data privacy regulations effortlessly. Meeting data residency requirements locally in India will also aid customers in accessing significant business opportunities in a \$6 billion cybersecurity market.

Barracuda's efforts have not gone unnoticed, with recent recognition including Best Solution for Email Security and Management at the 2024 Global InfoSec Awards, Best Web and Email Security at the CyberSec Asia Readers' Choice Awards, and Barracuda being named a Strong Performer in 'The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Email Security, Q2 2023'.