What is Avanan used for?

Avanan stands as a cybersecurity sentinel, focused on safeguarding organizations against email-borne threats.

Avanan's hybrid SEG platform leverages AI and machine learning to detect and prevent phishing and targeted attacks, including BEC and ATO, ensuring secure organizational email communications.

IRONSCALES vs. Avanan

IRONSCALES' Adaptive AI protection includes API integration for continuous inbox protection against advanced threats, automated remediation, phishing simulations, and security awareness training. Avanan primarily uses their API integrations with cloud-based email services to synchronize user identity data and establish a baseline for their behavior and relationships. However, they don't use their API for mailbox detection and defense, instead they use the API to configure an SMTP relay to capture upstream spam and threats.

Security Email Gateway (SEG) vs Integrated Cloud Email Security (ICES)

Security Email Gateways (SEGs), like Avanan, protect organizations from malicious emails with a signature/rule-based approach. Integrated Cloud Email Security (ICES), like IRONSCALES, is a more advanced approach that utilizes an API-based platform to provide protection at the mailbox level using AI and ML for anomaly detection.

Why Choose IRONSCALES over Avanan

Choosing the right email and messaging security platform is foundational to the protection of your organization. This page compares two of the top-rated email security platforms — IRONSCALES and Avanan — to help you choose the platform that’s right for you.

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Comparison Table

IRONSCALES provides a self-learning, AI-driven email security platform that continuously detects and remediates advanced threats like BEC, credential harvesting, ATO, and more, in milliseconds. The platform also incorporates employees into the organization’s fight against phishing with integrated email alert banners, report buttons, personalized phishing simulation testing, and advanced security awareness training (SAT).

Avanan is a cybersecurity company that specializes at protecting organizations from email-based threats. Its hybrid cloud SEG platform employs artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to identify and stop phishing and targeted threats, such as business email compromise (BEC) and account takeover (ATO) attacks.

Navigating the Shifting Landscape of Email Security

Over the past two decades, email security has witnessed significant transformations. Traditional methods like authentication and signature-based secure email gateways (SEGs) used to be enough, but they can’t keep up with the new tactics’ attackers use today. Now email security needs to proactively address "malicious intent" like social engineering, and automate active protection at the mailbox level.

Present-day solutions employ AI, ML, automation, and even human insights to tackle advanced threats like BEC, ATO, and VIP impersonation. Both Avanan and IRONSCALES have fashioned their solutions in response to this evolving threat environment.

Features
Inbound Email Protection Inspect and detect inbound email attacks
API-Based Cloud Email Configuration API configuration with M365 & GWS
API-Based Cloud Email Security Email security via native API avoiding MX record or SMTP Journaling changes
SMTP Journaling Integration Can affect DMARC compliance and potentially disrupt email delivery if the service goes down
Non-Disruptive DMARC Integrity Maintains DMARC compliance without altering MX records or SMTP transport rules, preserving original email authentication headers and ensuring seamless email flows
AI-Powered Advanced Phishing Protection (ATO, BEC, VIP attacks) Uses AI and machine learning to create baselines and detect anomalous activity & malicious intent		Via Journaling
URL / Link / Attachment Inspection Automatically analyze links in emails to detect and block malicious content, protecting against malware and ransomware
Attachment Inspection Automatically scans attachments in emails to detect and block malicious content, protecting against malware and ransomware
Adaptive AI (Human-in-the-Loop) Incorporates human insights and feedback from employees and admins to continuously train and update machine learning models
Phishing Simulation Testing Conduct realistic phishing simulations to train employees on recognizing and avoiding phishing attacks
GPT-Powered Spear Phishing Simulation Use GPT and behavioral analysis to create personalized phishing simulations for each employee
Security Awareness Training (SAT) Empower employees with interactive training modules to enhance their understanding of cybersecurity threats and best practices
Continuous Inbox Scanning for Time Delayed Attacks Monitor and analyze email behavior patterns in real-time to detect anomalies and potential threats
Crowdsourced Threat Intelligence Leverage real-time insights from a global network of security experts to enhance threat detection and stay ahead of emerging email attacks
Dynamic Inbox Banners warnings/guidance Customizable alert banners in emails highlight potential threats, providing visual warnings and enhancing user awareness and security
Email Archiving Stores and preserves email data for compliance, legal purposes, and long-term retention (now standard with most M365 plans)
Email Encryption Protects email content by converting it into unreadable code (now included with most M365 plans)
Native Mobile App for Incident Response Incident investigation & one-click remediation on-the-go

How are IRONSCALES and Avanan Different?

While IRONSCALES and Avanan share foundational strategies—using AI and ML for threat detection and remediation and integrating with cloud-based email services via APIs—their methodologies diverge substantially in the details.

❌ Avanan does not use their API for mailbox detection and defense, instead they use the API to configure an SMTP relay to capture upstream spam and threats. This approach may cause mail delivery disruptions during an Avanan outage and requires admins to manually perform ‘search and destroy’ actions for threat remediation. Additionally, journaling duplicates emails, increasing storage costs and compliance risks, while potentially delaying threat detection and response.

✔ IRONSCALES utilizes adaptive AI and ML for real-time protection at the inbox instead of pre- or post-delivery protection. This level of protection is achieved by fully harnessing the power of the IRONSCALES API integrations with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, ensuring continuous inbox protection without adding any risk of interrupting mail delivery. This also enables IRONSCALES to automate tasks such as individual and bulk remediations, thereby eliminating the need for admins to learn, create, and execute scripts or queries.

❌ Avanan lacks phishing simulation and security awareness training, leaving employees without the ongoing education needed to recognize and respond to evolving cyber threats.

✔ The IRONSCALES platform integrates training directly into the email experience with dynamic phishing simulations and adaptive security awareness training that automatically sends tailored training videos to user who fail phishing simulations.

This is just a high-level difference between the two solutions. Both Avanan and IRONSCALES offer different types of features and capabilities to address the shortcomings of basic security features included with cloud hosted email services. However, IRONSCALES stands out with its Adaptive AI that integrates human insights from a global community of security experts, enabling real-time detection and remediation of advanced threats

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Advanced Threat Protection

Protect Better

Block advanced phishing and BEC attacks (and never seen before threats) with our Adaptive AI—dynamically sharpened by real-world user insights and a community of over 25,000 threat hunters.

SOC Automation

Simplify Operations

Slash the time your team spends remediating email incidents from 30 minutes per incident to 30 seconds.

Our Adaptive AI scans every email for malicious indicators. When it finds a threat, it doesn’t just block it, it automatically finds and remediates all others like it in your environment.

SIMULATIONS & TRAINING

Empower your Org

Triple the email security awareness of your workforce and transform your employees into a crucial line of phishing defense. We make it dead simple to sharpen your employees' understanding of real-world threats with:

Phishing simulation testing
Security awareness training (SAT)
Dynamic email banners

...and a GPT-powered chat assistant

Case Studies

"The ability to provide real-time feedback on both positive and negative performance has proven very effective. It’s a wake-up call for our employees.”

Itzik Menashe Global IT Director of Telit

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Why Choose IRONSCALES over Avanan

Navigating the Shifting Landscape of Email Security

How are IRONSCALES and Avanan Different?

Why IRONSCALES?

Case Studies

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