Paubox Inbound Email Security: Defeating evolving phishing attacks with generative AI

We are pleased to announce that Paubox Inbound Email Security has been updated and overhauled using generative AI.

This post explains what's been added, what's changed, and what's stayed in place with our patented inbound email security solution. 

What's been added: Generative AI 

In a nutshell, generative AI refers to a class of artificial intelligence system designed to create new content. Unlike traditional AI systems that mainly classify, predict, or analyze data, generative AI produces original outputs based on patterns it learns from large datasets.

The main takeaway here that Inbound Email Security leverages generative AI to defeat evolving phishing attacks.

Generative AI for inbound email security

In the case of Paubox Inbound Security, we use large language models (LLMs), vector databases, and generative AI to classify each incoming email. 

Generative AI to stop fake invoices

A generative AI model can analyze the entire email in context, not just keywords.

Here's a real world example for a fake invoice scam we stopped:

In its message header, here's the custom header Paubox Inbound Security added to explain its reasoning behind correctly placing this message in the Paubox Quarantine:

X-Paubox-Security: This is likely spam due to sender domain mismatch - the email claims to be from QuickBooks but originates from "mailings.envoyermail.com" which is not an official Intuit/QuickBooks domain, indicating brand impersonation.

This simple one sentence explanation, derived from generative AI, provides a plain explanation to the end user.

Generative AI and contextual awareness

In the above fake invoice example, another thing to note is generative AI learns the style of real communications versus fake ones. This improves detection of evolving phishing attacks. 

By understanding nuance and context, generative AI better differentiates a genuine invoice from a phishing attempt.

What's changed: Geofencing deprecated

Geofencing is now deprecated with the new release of Paubox Inbound Security. In other words, it's no longer available as a feature.

In its place, we believe our generative AI classification system does a better job preventing phishing attacks and other email threats from reaching user mailboxes.

Gray mail settings removed

In addition to Geofencing being deprecated, several settings for Paubox Inbound Email Security have been removed from the Paubox Dashboard:

• Gray mail settings: (Strict vs Standard)
• Gray mail delivery: (Quarantine vs. deliver with ***SPAM*** in the Subject line)

We strongly believe these settings are no longer relevant with the new generative AI system now in place.

What hasn't changed

Although generative AI has bolstered Paubox Inbound Security, many popular Paubox features remain in place.

They are:

• ExecProtect and ExecProtect+. We built ExecProtect because our customers asked for protection against display name spoofing attacks by bad actors impersonating their upper management. ExecProtect+ an AI-driven enhancement to ExecProtect, allowing an entire organization to automatically protect against display name spoofing attacks (learn more).
• Virus and malware scanning. As we've done since the beginning, Paubox Inbound Security still includes robust virus and malware scanning, both for attachments and links within emails.
• Paubox Transcription. Paubox Transcription automatically transcribes any audio file attachment in inbound email. The transcribed text is appended to the bottom of the message with the note: Powered by Paubox Transcription (learn more).
• Paubox [Tags]. Paubox [Tags] modifies the subject line of an incoming email based on two criteria: the sender's address and the [Tag] to apply (learn more).
• Rulesets. Block and Allow ruleset entries are still applicable. Ruleset entries can either be email addresses (rhonda@example.com) or entire domains (*@example.com).
• Quarantine reports. Quarantine Reports allow individual users to easily manage their own quarantines (learn more).
• Spam folder routing. Spam Folder Routing allows gray mail to be placed directly in end users' Spam folders, instead of the Paubox Quarantine (learn more). 
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Archiving. For Paubox Email Suite Premium customers, DLP and email Archiving remain intact.

Conclusion: Generative AI delivers value and peace of Mind

In sum, the inclusion of generative AI to Paubox Inbound Security delivers value and peace of mind.

Despite the evolving threat landscape of phishing attacks and email threats, Paubox remains ahead of the curve by leveraging the latest in AI.