CISO Guide to Replacing Your SEG

This guide offers Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) a detailed roadmap for transitioning away from legacy Secure Email Gateways (SEGs) in favor of modern, AI-native security solutions. It outlines the growing ineffectiveness of SEGs against today’s threats—like business email compromise (BEC), vendor impersonation, credential phishing, and payloadless malware—which exploit trusted identities, clean domains, and social engineering tactics to bypass traditional filters.

The document presents compelling real-world examples of successful attacks that passed through SEGs, leading to financial fraud and credential theft. It argues that these attacks demand a modern defense—one that leverages behavioral AI, identity modeling, and deep contextual analysis to detect anomalies in user behavior and communication patterns. Abnormal Security’s platform is positioned as the ideal solution, integrating via API with cloud-native email platforms like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. It enables full SOC automation, cross-platform threat detection, and efficient remediation without disabling native protections.

A practical 5-week migration timeline is provided, detailing the minimal resource commitment needed to replace SEGs. The guide also emphasizes improved ROI, reduced overhead, and future-proofed defenses, making a strong case for security teams to act now.

Ready to replace your SEG? Discover how Abnormal helps CISOs protect more and spend less—start your migration today.