Why Choose IRONSCALES over Avanan

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.

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 leans heavily on technology, using AI and ML to identify and neutralize incoming malicious emails. Its solution also provides real-time insights and analytics, enabling security teams to take proactive measures to prevent future attacks. 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. Despite the potential utility of this SEG-like approach—it may cause mail delivery disruptions during an Avanan outage. Additionally, it requires administrators to manually initiate 'search and destroy' actions for mass remediation.

• 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.
  
  Another significant differentiator to IRONSCALES is the native integration of human insights into the platform. By incorporating employees in the fight against phishing with integrated email alert banners and report phishing buttons, employees' [human] insights are looped into IRONSCALES AI/ML models to continuously advance autonomous security coverage. The platform also includes the ability to send personalized phishing simulations and training based on employees' profiles and recent inbox attacks, using the integrated Phishing Simulation Testing and Security Awareness Training (SAT).
  
  Additionally, IRONSCALES differentiates itself with its integration of employees' [human] insights that feed AI/ML models to continuously advance attack coverage. with features such as email alert banners and report phishing buttons. Moreover, personalized phishing simulations and security awareness training (SAT) based on employees' profiles help improve its security coverage.

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 real-time inbox level protection and integration of human insights.