Targeting email security - is that CLEAR?

Proofpoint has introduced its Closed-Loop Email Analysis and Response (CLEAR) solution, a complete closed-loop approach to instant end user email reporting, analysis, and remediation to stop potentially malicious emails that pass through perimeter defenses. Once reported, CLEAR automatically analyzes messages against multiple intelligence and reputation systems, reducing an organization’s typical threat triage time from days to minutes without requiring additional work from human analysts.

 

Proofpoint CLEAR is the first joint solution announcement following the acquisition of Wombat Security, demonstrating Proofpoint’s commitment to continued development, innovation, and integration of acquired solutions.

 

“Email fraud and phishing have cost organizations billions of dollars—and our new CLEAR solution empowers end users to stop active attacks with just one click,” said Joe Ferrara, general manager of the Wombat Security product division of Proofpoint. “Cybersecurity is a company-wide initiative and a cybersecurity-savvy workforce is the last line of defense against targeted phishing attempts when attackers get past the perimeter. Proofpoint CLEAR boosts the visibility of phishing campaigns and automatically processes employee-reported malicious messages, underscoring the positive and direct impact that informed employees can have on improving the security posture of an organization.”

 

Enriched with Proofpoint’s world-class threat intelligence, CLEAR offers organizations a short path from reporting to remediation of phishing attacks that slip past perimeter defenses. Rather than requiring employees to manually forward potential malicious messages to abuse mailboxes, which often results in incomplete information like missing headers or attachments, end users can easily report a suspicious message with a single click using an embedded PhishAlarm email reporting button.

 

CLEAR’s security automation and orchestration capabilities also minimize alerts with automatic filtering of whitelisted emails and simulated phish, enabling response teams to better prioritize their work. Once reported, PhishAlarm Analyzer prioritizes and sends messages to Proofpoint Threat Response Auto Pull (TRAP) which automatically analyzes messages against multiple intelligence and reputation systems and shares this information with messaging and security responders. This replaces the uncertainty of ignoring messages with a positive feedback loop. With this insight, security teams can either delete or quarantine verified threats from end user inboxes with a single click.

 

To further assist security teams, CLEAR provides organizations with relevant and timely metrics for measuring the effectiveness of security awareness programs. These metrics go beyond the percentage of users that fall for a simulated phishing attack. Security analysts can also receive an auditable history of actions taken within TRAP, including message ‘read’ status, list of forwarded messages, and dashboards of key indicators about the remediation process. This information provides a comprehensive review of an organization’s responsiveness to targeted phishing attacks.