Craig McDonald Nov 19, 2021 11:49:16 AM 13 MIN READ

Continuous Improvement | Staying Ahead, So Our Customers Stay Protected

2021 partner support blog header-02-01As we near the end of 2021, a year that has been difficult once again for so many around the world, I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you, our partners, some fantastic progress from my team as we strive to make our industry-leading email security services even better.

I am enormously proud of what my team have achieved, and you can rest assured that the services that are protecting your customers and their teams are continuing to outpace the growing array of threats from sophisticated cybercriminal networks around the globe.

From our security infrastructure to our products and services, and support teams, daily iterations ensure that you can be confident in knowing that they have the very best of email security. They’re sentiments that I am also proud to hear echoed from our customers and partners across the globe.  

Thank you for your continued support this year. Our partners make it all possible. I have captured below a selection of some of the advancements that the team have implemented this year, many reflecting direct feedback from our customer and partner network. We have implemented more than 50% of items voted by our customers and partners, as the most valuable and important feature requests and enhancements.

Advancements in Core Security IP & Threat Protection

Serverless Infrastructure

MailGuard has redesigned its’ core IP & threat protection infrastructure to run on modern serverless technologies to ensure that the protection provided to all services are instantly available and scalable, and to ensure that its’ services can continue to take advantage of cutting-edge technologies today and into the future.

Multi-Cloud

Our Core Security IP systems have continued to scale in a multi-cloud environment, certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2013, 27017:2015, 27018:2019, and ISO/IEC 9001:2015, among others.

Evolving Third-Party Integrations

Our infrastructure continues to leverage closely vetted, best of breed third-party service as enhancements to our core IP and augment our proprietary threat protection which has evolved from 20+ years protecting businesses with pioneering cloud email security services.

Proprietary Advanced Predictive Threat Protection

Our rule sets for Advanced Predictive Email Threat Protection have been further developed and deployed to outpace bad actors, staying ahead of new and evolving zero-day threats in an ever more treacherous landscape.

Security Tooling Advances for Monitoring

A major shift in security tooling has been implemented throughout the year to enable active monitoring of evolving “real world” threat vectors in real-time, yielding tremendous results in speed of detection, monitoring, and remediation. 

Continuing R&D

In addition to investments and enhancements of the Core Platform and Protection IP, MailGuard has continued to heavily re-invest in research & development to retain its lead at the forefront of the email cyber security sector. This R&D spans the core platforms and related products and services, including MailGuard, MailGuard 365, SafeGuard, WebGuard, ImageGuard, and MailGuard Live.

MailGuard Email Filtering

Leveraging Core Security IP & Threat Protection

To leverage the enhancements in our Core Threat Protection IP, the entire backend infrastructure of the MailGuard email filtering platform has been re-engineered, to take full advantage of the breadth of current and future technology available. 

Console Enhancements

Further security enhancements were deployed to the MailGuard console including login security notifications, which alert a user of a "new" login detected on their account, based on country of login, IP address, browser fingerprint, etc.

End-User Quarantine

Now available on the MailGuard console, End-User Quarantine empowers educated users who can manage their own quarantine and reduce the workload for Administrators.

Mail Server Outage Notifications

Proactive notifications alert Administrators of mail server outages, to inform them if a potential issue with their mail server may interfere with services.

Email Tracker Timestamps

To ensure that the email tracker is more accurate and reliable for Administrators, timestamps were added to the MailGuard tracker.

Single Sign-On (SSO) Options

SSO Options have now been enabled as the default login mechanism on the console. Customers and Partners have the option to disable a password-based "classic" login altogether, in order to align with compliance needs as required for their organisation.

App-Based Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

App-based MFA for the MailGuard Console is now available and should be used when password-based authentication is the preferred means of authentication. 

Spear Phishing Enhancements for Admin Use

The MailGuard customer-specific targeted advanced spear-phishing module will now be made available to Administrators and technical contacts to manage natively, in the console. This enhancement promises to save time for customers, giving further control back to the organisation. Note that general (global) advanced spear-phishing rule sets published as part of MailGuard’s’ Core IP will also continue to provide protection to all users.

WebGuard

Backend infrastructure & re-platforming

As with MailGuard, the entire backend infrastructure for WebGuard together with its services were re-platformed to ensure the service continues to deliver the level of protection clients expect, together with the ability to remain scalable into the future. 

Category Engine Re-Build

The Category Engine underpins the accuracy and control of the WebGuard service, and it has been completely re-built by MailGuard’s engineering team to supersede legacy services and ensure that customers continue to experience the highest levels of threat protection.

Advanced Security Rules

As the landscape changes, so too is it necessary for the Advanced Security Rule Sets to continue to be enhanced to stay ahead of bad actors, and leverage advancements in MailGuard’s Core IP and outpace the latest internet-based threats. 

SafeGuard

Tooling Upgrades

To continue offering a stable, scalable, and reliable store of all inbound and outbound mail for customers, changes to the tooling used to monitor the service were necessary. 

SafeGuard Zip Manager Uplift

A major uplift in functionality, along with enhancements around the quotas and upper limits of email search and download (currently in a closed beta soon to be released to GA), have seen enhancements delivered to improve the performance of Zip Manag

Continuity

Platform Re-Architecture

As with the other services, the Continuity platform has been re-architected onto a serverless platform and is now hosted in a multi-cloud infrastructure to further improve the reliability, scalability, availability, performance, and security of the service.

Address Book Enhancements

Address book functionality and improved authentication methods are coming, to enable further options around login security for customers. 

Hosted Mail 

Backend Infrastructure Upgrade

The Hosted Mail backend infrastructure together with its services were also re-platformed to ensure the service continues to deliver the level of service clients expect, together with scalability to keep pace with future demands. 

Support

Process Enhancements and Streamlining

The service delivery from MailGuard’s Support team is second to none. To ensure that we continue to exceed the needs of our customers and partners, the MailGuard Service Desk have implemented multiple streamlining and process enhancements during 2021 which have enabled us to maintain the excellent support which we are known for in the industry, during one of the busiest years on record.

Telecoms Upgrade

Major enhancements to MailGuard’s Support telecom systems, have resulted in an overall improvement in call handling & quality, and pick-up times.

Customer-Facing Documentation Audit

To modernize customer-facing documentation, and to ensure all content is current and relevant to the needs of Partners & Administrators who are looking to solve common queries, a complete documentation audit has been completed.

Front-Line Support Security Enablement

MailGuard Service Desk Analysts have been armed with additional tools created by the MailGuard SecOps Team to continue improving our efficiency & speed with regards to answering and solving customer queries to a high level of satisfaction as promptly as possible.

Notification Process Improvement

The team have also implemented process improvements to communications & procedures to improve speed and greater transparency around notifications of security and service updates for Partners & Customers.

Coming soon 

As cyber threats continue to escalate globally, our team is at the forefront, with a mission to stay ahead of threat actors and ensure that our products and services evolve. The following are some of the new feature additions and enhancements that we are working on, and that you can expect to see implemented very soon.

  • Further improvements and iterations for our Core IP to ensure security remains industry-leading.
  • Further enhancements to existing DKIM/DMARC checks, including native validation and stamping on the MailGuard filter network.
  • DKIM outbound signing of email.
  • Support for TLS 1.3 encryption protocols and cipher support on MailGuard filters and console (Note MailGuard currently utilise the industry standard of the TLS protocol 1.2).
  • Email URL re-writing for MailGuard.
  • Email Tracker search enhancements.
  • SafeGuard re-design and re-platform for enhanced functionality
  • Console re-design and re-platform for enhanced user experience and usability. 
  • Additional advanced ML models integrated into Core IP
  • Console Backend API development lays the pathway for enhanced usage of the console functions. 
  • Enhanced Continuity Password Management, and
  • Various feature requests are in line with our customer and partner feedback tool (UserVoice), which provides our pipeline of client and partner feedback on the most in-demand and valuable feature, product, and services improvements.

As always, we are here for you and your customers. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us, anytime.

Regards,

Craig McDonald

CEO & Founder, MailGuard

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For any queries, or for further information about the new product enhancements or features to come, please contact your Partner Account Manager or MailGuard at support@mailguard.com.au.

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