What is Sophos Email?

Sophos Email is an AI-powered email security solution designed to defend inboxes from phishing, business email compromise (BEC), spam, and email-delivered malware. It uses multi-layered AI protection, threat intelligence, and identity/brand-focused detection, and integrates with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace to help stop evasive email-based threats before they reach or are acted on by users.

Why do organizations need an additional email security solution beyond Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace?

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace provide baseline email security, but advanced phishing, impersonation, and BEC attacks often bypass native controls. The best approach is to add an additional email security layer to improve detection accuracy, increase visibility into threats, and enable faster response to sophisticated, targeted attacks.

Is it common to use more than one email security solution?

Yes, many organizations use a layered or multi-vendor approach to email security. Combining native controls with additional email security capabilities helps improve protection against advanced phishing, internal threats, and account compromise while reducing overall risk across the email environment.

What types of email threats does Sophos Email protect against?

Sophos Email defends against phishing, spear-phishing, QR code-based phishing (quishing), business email compromise (BEC), executive and brand impersonation, malicious URLs, weaponized attachments, malware, ransomware delivery, spam, and data exfiltration. It uses sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), URL protection, cloud sandboxing, and natural language processing to block attacks before they reach the inbox.

Can Sophos Email detect AI-generated or highly evasive attacks?

Yes, Sophos Email uses advanced AI models to analyze message language, context, and sender behavior to detect evasive threats, including AI-generated phishing and impersonation attacks. This approach helps identify attacks designed to appear legitimate and bypass traditional filters that rely primarily on known threat indicators.

How does Sophos Email detect threats?

Sophos Email uses a multi-layered defense architecture that incorporates more than 20 AI and machine-learning models, including natural language processing (NLP) models that analyze message content, tone, and intent. Detection layers include sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), reputation analysis, URL rewriting and time-of-click protection, cloud sandboxing of attachments, and behavioral analysis to identify impersonation and BEC attempts.

How should I evaluate AI capabilities in an email security solution?

AI capabilities in email security vary widely, so organizations should focus on outcomes rather than labels. Look for solutions that improve detection of phishing and BEC, provide clear visibility into why messages are flagged, and enhance response efficiency, rather than relying on broad claims about AI.

Can Sophos Email remove malicious emails after they are delivered?

Yes, Sophos Email includes post-delivery protection that can identify and remove malicious messages from user inboxes. This helps address threats that were not detected earlier or become malicious over time, reducing user exposure and enabling faster remediation of phishing and malware-based attacks.

What is the difference between gateway-based and API-based email security?

Gateway-based email security filters messages before delivery, typically requiring mail routing changes, while API-based email security integrates directly with platforms like Microsoft 365 and analyzes messages within the inbox. Many organizations use a combination of both approaches to balance pre-delivery protection and post-delivery visibility and response. Sophos Email can be deployed in either mode, providing the flexibility to meet your environment’s demands.

How does Sophos Email fit into a broader security strategy?

Email is a primary entry point for attacks, so email security must work alongside endpoint, identity, and network protection. Sophos Email integrates with Sophos XDR and MDR to correlate email activity with endpoint, identity, and network signals, helping security teams detect, investigate, and respond to threats across multiple vectors.

How does Sophos Email help reduce human risk?

Email attacks frequently rely on social engineering to exploit user behavior. Sophos Email reduces human-layer risk by blocking high-risk messages, applying contextual warnings, and, with the addition of Sophos Phish Threat, supports phishing simulation and awareness training, helping users recognize suspicious activity while minimizing the number of threats they encounter.

Is Sophos Email easy to deploy and manage?

Sophos Email is designed for simple deployment and ease of use, integrating quickly with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Centralized management through Sophos Fusion allows organizations to configure policies, monitor threats, and manage email security operations efficiently without adding significant complexity or administrative overhead.

What should I look for when evaluating an email security solution?

Organizations should evaluate email security solutions based on their ability to stop phishing and BEC attacks, detect evasive threats using AI, provide post-delivery protection, and integrate with broader security tools. Ease of deployment, visibility into threats, and support for user awareness training are also critical considerations.

How does Sophos Email integrate with Microsoft 365?

Sophos Email integrates directly with Microsoft 365 through API integration, enabling faster deployment and post-delivery remediation. Because integration is API-based rather than MX-record-based, Sophos Email can claw back malicious messages from user inboxes after delivery, scan internal email between Microsoft 365 users, and apply policies without changing mail flow. It enhances rather than replaces native Microsoft 365 protection

How does Sophos Email integrate with Sophos MDR?

Sophos Email is the only email security solution optimized for Managed Detection and Response. Sophos MDR analysts can use Sophos Email to execute real-time response actions including clawing back malicious messages from user inboxes, blocking malicious senders, domains, or IP addresses, and modifying email security policies and configurations. This gives the Sophos MDR team direct control over the email attack surface alongside endpoints, network, identity, and cloud.

How does Sophos Email integrate with Sophos XDR?

Sophos XDR ingests email security telemetry from Sophos Email including account compromise attempts, data control violations, and post-delivery protection events. Signals are enriched with threat intelligence from Sophos X-Ops and correlated with detections from endpoints, network, identity, cloud, and third-party tools to reveal multi-stage attacks. Analysts can take email-related response actions directly from Sophos XDR.

Sophos Email

An easy-to-use, enterprise-grade email security solution to defend against evasive email-based threats

Sophos Email prevents email threats from reaching users' inboxes through multi-layered AI protection, unmatched threat intelligence, and strong brand and identity detection. It also seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, includes phishing simulation and user awareness training, and provides Sophos MDR with exceptional visibility into email threats.

90%

Successful cyberattacks that start with a phishing email

Source: Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

86%

Security leaders who express concern that GenAI will enable more advanced phishing and BEC attacks

Source: 451 Research from S&P Global Energy Horizons

Increase in BEC attacks from 2024 to 2025

Source: Sophos’ 2026 Active Adversary Report

"Known for robust AI and ML defenses, it [Sophos Email] effectively guards against threats like BEC and phishing attacks… The innovative AI-powered natural language processing enhances the system’s ability to thwart social engineering attacks, making it particularly effective against BEC."

Martin Kuppinger

Principal Analyst & Co-Founder, KuppingerCole

KuppingerCole’s 2025 Leadership Compass for Email Security

YOUR CHALLENGES

Protecting your inboxes from advanced email threats has never been more important

Modern email-based attacks require a solution that reduces exposure to advanced phishing and BEC attacks, trains users to spot deception, and protects your business from costly breaches and operational disruption.

Evolving threats

AI‑generated phishing, BEC, and identity‑spoofing attacks are increasingly sophisticated, often bypassing native filtering tools and putting users a click away from compromise.

Operational complexity

Complex deployment, configuration, and management increase the risk of compromise.

Human-layer risk

Email-based attacks hinge on deceiving users, making lapses in human judgement one of the most exploited and impactful threat vectors.

OVERVIEW

AI-powered, enterprise-grade, and easy-to-use

Sophos Email delivers enterprise-grade email protection via multi-layered AI, threat intelligence, strong brand and identity detection, with phishing simulation, awareness training, anti-spam, and full visibility.

Superior threat identification and prevention block evasive phishing attacks, BEC attacks, and spam.

Flexible deployment and exceptional usability to easily operationalize enterprise-grade protection.

End-to-end email security inclusive of phishing and end-user awareness training, all at a competitive price.

FEATURES

Sophos Email: Key components

Sophos Email leverages multiple features to reduce cyber risk, elevate defenses against AI threats, enhance user awareness, and simplify operations.

How Sophos Email delivers

AI-powered defenses

Sophos Email includes multiple AI and ML models that operate across multiple layers to detect the widest range of email-based threats. These models are continuously enriched with real-world attack insights from Sophos X-Ops, enabling them to adapt to evasive and AI-generated email attacks faster than traditional defenses.

Impersonation and BEC protection

Proprietary natural language processing (NLP) models analyze the text, tone, context, and structure of emails to protect from BEC and account takeover attacks.

Anti-spoofing and authentication enforcement

SPF, DKIM and DMARC form a layered defense that verifies sender legitimacy, message integrity, and protect against email spoofing and phishing.

Zero-day threat protection

Static and dynamic file analysis, including sandboxing, examines attachments and their behavior to determine if they are malicious.

Time-of-click URL rewriting

Protects the users from the deferred weaponization of URLs by rewriting them in the delivered email. This allows the URL to be scanned at the moment the user clicks on the link, rather than when the email is delivered.

QR-code and image-based threat detection

Protection from the malicious URLs embedded by attackers within QR codes or images instead of traditional clickable links.

Post-delivery protection

Allows the automatic clawback of emails that are later identified as malicious after they've already been delivered to user inboxes, closing the window of exposure when threat intelligence is updated after the initial delivery.

Data loss prevention (DLP) and Encryption

Multi-rule DLP and Content Control policies detect and automatically encrypt sensitive data in emails, while Portal Encryption provides a branded, secure web portal for compliant email sharing.

Deep Microsoft and Google Integration

Seamlessly integrate with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, reinforcing your existing infrastructure with advanced threat detection that ensures no email threat goes undetected. Administrators can quarantine suspicious messages pre- or post-delivery with Microsoft 365 directly from Sophos Fusion.

Integrated end-user awareness training

Built-in phishing simulation and security awareness training programs keep users alert to the latest phishing techniques. Comprehensive reporting makes it easy to demonstrate program delivery and compliance.

MDR/XDR-assisted threat containment

Sophos Email integrates with Sophos MDR and XDR to provide SecOps teams with deeper visibility and control to neutralize active threats and execute needed remediations in real time.

Synchronized Security

Synchronized Security links mailbox and endpoint telemetry to detect compromised accounts, block malicious messages, and accelerate response. As part of Sophos Fusion, the industry's most complete AI-Native Cybersecurity Defense System, Sophos Email enables coordinated protection across users, devices, identities, and communication channels.

Introducing the Sophos AI-Native Cybersecurity Defense System.

Sophos Fusion

Sophos Email is part of Sophos Fusion, the industry's most complete cyber defense system, engineered for a world where threats move at AI speed.

Sophos Email protects against phishing, malware, and account compromise, feeding email threat intelligence into Sophos Fusion for coordinated detection and response.

Learn more about Sophos Fusion

Sophos Email Monitoring System (EMS)

Sophos Email Monitoring System reinforces your existing email infrastructure to detect missed threats, integrating seamlessly with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other email security products. As part of Sophos Fusion, the industry's most complete AI-Native Cybersecurity Defense System, EMS incorporates email telemetry into Sophos MDR and XDR to help unify security operations by correlating intelligence and coordinating response across users, devices, identities, applications, and communication channels.

DMARC Manager

DMARC implementation can be complex, requiring organizations to navigate intricate DNS, SPF, and DKIM configurations, all while avoiding missteps that could block critical business email. DMARC Manager removes this burden by providing intuitive visibility into your authentication landscape, automating report analysis, and guiding you toward DMARC conformance - helping you protect your brand from spoofing and phishing and achieve ongoing compliance with minimal effort.

Portal Encryption

Many organizations need to ensure that the sensitive information shared via email is protected in transit and at rest to meet regulatory and compliance requirements. Portal Encryption addresses these requirements by providing a secure web-portal where recipients can access and respond to encrypted messages without needing their own encryption infrastructure, ensuring sensitive communications stay protected regardless of the recipient's email setup. Custom branding strengthens recipient trust further, while administrators retain complete control over the portal and its users.

Sophos Phish Threat

Users are the most targeted entry point for cyberattacks, with phishing and social engineering exploiting human error over technical vulnerabilities. Sophos Email includes Sophos Phish Threat, delivering realistic phishing simulations and interactive training that empower employees to recognize and resist threats. Comprehensive reporting gives IT teams clear visibility into organizational risk and makes it easy to demonstrate compliance.

See why customers choose Sophos

Sophos Email named a Customers’ Choice in the 2026 Gartner® Peer Insights™ Voice of the Customer for Email Security¹

Sophos Email named an Overall, Product, Innovation, and Market leader in KuppingerCole's 2025 Leadership Compass for Email Security.

Consistent SPAM+ performance in Virus Bulletin’s VBSpam tests

Why Sophos

Free Trial

If you already have an active Sophos Fusion account, you can access Sophos Email from the Sophos Fusion Admin console. Log in to Sophos Fusion, click Free Trials, and select Sophos Email. Otherwise, fill out this form to begin a free trial.

Protect users from malware, phishing, and impersonation attempts
Secure sensitive data with DLP and a range of encryption options
Compatible with all other email services where you control the domain and DNS records

Customer Success

Already a customer? Find additional information to inspire, grow your knowledge, troubleshoot, and get help.

Sophos Email Community

Sophos Email Documentation

Sophos Email Techvids

Sophos Phish Threat Documentation

Sophos Phish Threat Techvid

Sophos DMARC Manager Documentation

Sophos EMS Documentation

Frequently asked questions

Sophos Email is an AI-powered email security solution designed to defend inboxes from phishing, business email compromise (BEC), spam, and email-delivered malware. It uses multi-layered AI protection, threat intelligence, and identity/brand-focused detection, and integrates with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace to help stop evasive email-based threats before they reach or are acted on by users.
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace provide baseline email security, but advanced phishing, impersonation, and BEC attacks often bypass native controls. The best approach is to add an additional email security layer to improve detection accuracy, increase visibility into threats, and enable faster response to sophisticated, targeted attacks.
Yes, many organizations use a layered or multi-vendor approach to email security. Combining native controls with additional email security capabilities helps improve protection against advanced phishing, internal threats, and account compromise while reducing overall risk across the email environment.
Sophos Email defends against phishing, spear-phishing, QR code-based phishing (quishing), business email compromise (BEC), executive and brand impersonation, malicious URLs, weaponized attachments, malware, ransomware delivery, spam, and data exfiltration. It uses sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), URL protection, cloud sandboxing, and natural language processing to block attacks before they reach the inbox.
Yes, Sophos Email uses advanced AI models to analyze message language, context, and sender behavior to detect evasive threats, including AI-generated phishing and impersonation attacks. This approach helps identify attacks designed to appear legitimate and bypass traditional filters that rely primarily on known threat indicators.
Sophos Email uses a multi-layered defense architecture that incorporates more than 20 AI and machine-learning models, including natural language processing (NLP) models that analyze message content, tone, and intent. Detection layers include sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), reputation analysis, URL rewriting and time-of-click protection, cloud sandboxing of attachments, and behavioral analysis to identify impersonation and BEC attempts.
AI capabilities in email security vary widely, so organizations should focus on outcomes rather than labels. Look for solutions that improve detection of phishing and BEC, provide clear visibility into why messages are flagged, and enhance response efficiency, rather than relying on broad claims about AI.
Yes, Sophos Email includes post-delivery protection that can identify and remove malicious messages from user inboxes. This helps address threats that were not detected earlier or become malicious over time, reducing user exposure and enabling faster remediation of phishing and malware-based attacks.
Gateway-based email security filters messages before delivery, typically requiring mail routing changes, while API-based email security integrates directly with platforms like Microsoft 365 and analyzes messages within the inbox. Many organizations use a combination of both approaches to balance pre-delivery protection and post-delivery visibility and response. Sophos Email can be deployed in either mode, providing the flexibility to meet your environment’s demands.
Email is a primary entry point for attacks, so email security must work alongside endpoint, identity, and network protection. Sophos Email integrates with Sophos XDR and MDR to correlate email activity with endpoint, identity, and network signals, helping security teams detect, investigate, and respond to threats across multiple vectors.
Email attacks frequently rely on social engineering to exploit user behavior. Sophos Email reduces human-layer risk by blocking high-risk messages, applying contextual warnings, and, with the addition of Sophos Phish Threat, supports phishing simulation and awareness training, helping users recognize suspicious activity while minimizing the number of threats they encounter.
Sophos Email is designed for simple deployment and ease of use, integrating quickly with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Centralized management through Sophos Fusion allows organizations to configure policies, monitor threats, and manage email security operations efficiently without adding significant complexity or administrative overhead.
Organizations should evaluate email security solutions based on their ability to stop phishing and BEC attacks, detect evasive threats using AI, provide post-delivery protection, and integrate with broader security tools. Ease of deployment, visibility into threats, and support for user awareness training are also critical considerations.
Sophos Email integrates directly with Microsoft 365 through API integration, enabling faster deployment and post-delivery remediation. Because integration is API-based rather than MX-record-based, Sophos Email can claw back malicious messages from user inboxes after delivery, scan internal email between Microsoft 365 users, and apply policies without changing mail flow. It enhances rather than replaces native Microsoft 365 protection
Sophos Email is the only email security solution optimized for Managed Detection and Response. Sophos MDR analysts can use Sophos Email to execute real-time response actions including clawing back malicious messages from user inboxes, blocking malicious senders, domains, or IP addresses, and modifying email security policies and configurations. This gives the Sophos MDR team direct control over the email attack surface alongside endpoints, network, identity, and cloud.
Sophos XDR ingests email security telemetry from Sophos Email including account compromise attempts, data control violations, and post-delivery protection events. Signals are enriched with threat intelligence from Sophos X-Ops and correlated with detections from endpoints, network, identity, cloud, and third-party tools to reveal multi-stage attacks. Analysts can take email-related response actions directly from Sophos XDR.