Securing Higher Education: Top College Switches from Abnormal to Proofpoint

When you represent a historic educational institution with a reputation to protect, you can't afford gaps in email security. This is the reality for many higher education security teams. It was also the case for one liberal arts college on the East Coast that recently made the switch from Abnormal AI to Proofpoint's API-deployed Core Email Protection.

Renowned for its academic excellence and awards, the college has a 100-year legacy and equally strong brand to defend against scammers. Their 20,000+ student and staff email accounts needed better protection against phishing. At the same time, their lean IT team needed a solution that was powerful, effective, and easy to manage. With Proofpoint, the college got both without having to compromise.

College first opts for speed over stability

When the college first evaluated Proofpoint and Abnormal, its team recognized Proofpoint's secure email gateway included broad capabilities and effective detection. But the team hesitated. Despite Proofpoint's expertise in migrating MX records quickly and reliably, they believed switching MX records would be too resource-intensive for their small security team. They were seeking something simpler and specifically deployed via API. Instead, they signed a one-year contract with Abnormal, believing its API would be good enough and make up for any detection deficiencies with speed.
But they quickly learned speed doesn't equal security.

Problems with Abnormal's email security

Within months, initial threats started slipping through. External phishing campaigns began compromising student and alumni accounts. This led to malicious emails being sent between internal users, multipying the impact. Due to lagging response times, these credential phishing emails often lingered in inboxes until well after links were clicked, turning each compromised account into a launchpad for more attacks.

Worse was the impact on their public image. Brand trust is everything for a college. Seeing phishing attempts in their inboxes both damaged students' confidence in the institution and strained IT resources. But their small team simply couldn't remediate accounts fast enough.

Proofpoint's email security API turns the tide

When their Abnormal contract came up for renewal, the college revisited Proofpoint. And the timing was perfect. Proofpoint now offered API deployment that met the team's need for speed without sacrificing protection. But providing an API-based offering was just the beginning and the decision quickly became clear for the university's IT staff: Proofpoint offered stronger protection, faster response, and an easy path to implementation.

Why choose Proofpoint:

• Better threat detection. Proofpoint Nexus^® delivers AI-driven threat detection with accuracy that leads the industry. It stops 99.99% of the widest variety of email threats, including advanced phishing and threats sent from known third-parties or internally compromised accounts, as experienced by the college.
• Protection beyond email. With Account Takeover Protection, Proofpoint's applied behavioral AI automatically detects, investigates, and remediates compromised accounts that may result from phishing attempts. This capability was critical for the university's IT team, which wanted to stop the exponential spread of compromised accounts.
• Ease and value. Proofpoint provided an integrated, API-based platform that covered email and identity threats at a comparable investment to the school's existing solution. This enabled the IT team to roll out advanced protections quickly without having to deal with the potential complexity of MX record changes.

The results: more secure students and faculty

Since switching, the college has seen a significant reduction in compromised accounts as well as phishing emails in inboxes. Their IT staff is no longer bogged down by constant remediation of account takeovers. As a result, the team can now focus on strategic initiatives to better support their student body.

Beyond technology, their decision validated something deeper: Proofpoint's long track record of success with education and public sector customers. Proofpoint gave them the confidence they needed to make the switch. Today, the college enjoys stronger security and restored trust.

A human-centric approach for smarter schools

Email threats are relentless. For colleges and universities, the stakes are high: student trust, institutional reputation, and limited IT resources all create potential constraints. This college learned firsthand that not all email security vendors are created equal. Proofpoint's API-first approach and industry-leading detection make it the clear choice for higher ed.

Want to learn more about how Proofpoint provides additional security for your Microsoft email environment through API deployment? Read our e-book: More Secure Together: Proofpoint and Microsoft.