At the RSA Conference in San Francisco earlier this month, Google’s security experts and thousands of security professionals gathered to hear about the latest cybersecurity tools, threats, and real-world attacks, including ongoing breaches by a state-sponsored threat actor and those documented in the recent Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) report. 

Email is where most attacks start, and legacy email solutions don’t have a strong track record in keeping their software resilient from exploits. In fact, 65% of successful intrusions in 2023 began with an exploit, phishing, or stolen credentials. Once an attacker gains access to a network, they typically steal confidential data, deploy crippling ransomware, and can even take control of the entire system.

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Sources: 1. 2023 Comcast Business Cybersecurity Threat Report, July 2023. 2. M-Trends report, Mandiant, April 2024

Fortunately, there is a safer way to work. In contrast to legacy email solutions, Gmail and Google Workspace were architected and built with modern threats in mind:

  1. Gmail uses cutting-edge AI defenses and threat signals from billions of endpoints to automatically protect users from the vast majority of harmful emails. This is how Gmail blocks more than 99.9% of spam, phishing attempts, and malware from reaching your inbox. Gmail also detects two times more malware on average than third-party standard antivirus products alone. 
  2. Unlike legacy email solutions, with Workspace, there are no desktop client apps or instances of legacy, on-premises software that need to be patched and secured. This means a smaller attack surface and less work for your IT teams. 
  3. Unlike legacy productivity solutions, where emails and files are stored on end-user devices, with Workspace, your data is stored in the cloud, which is simpler to protect with enterprise data protection controls. 
  4. As another layer of data privacy and protection, you can also prevent vendor or foreign government access to your Gmail and Workspace data with client-side encryption.

Google approach can result in tangible business benefits. According to independent analysis from the insurance company, Coalition, on average, users of legacy email solutions were two to three times more likely to experience a cyber insurance claim compared to businesses using Google Workspace. This difference results in lower losses and ultimately 50% lower insurance premiums for Google Workspace customers.*

A more secure alternative for enterprise customers

To bring these benefits to even more organizations, we’re launching the Secure Alternative Program, from Google Workspace, to help enterprises that are currently on legacy email and productivity solutions migrate to a safer way of working. This program includes special pricing on Workspace Enterprise Plus with the AI Security add-on, plus our most advanced threat defense, data protection, and zero trust controls. It also includes special pricing for Mandiant Incident Response Retainer, which can help your teams respond to incidents faster with a trusted security partner on standby. Finally, it will provide specialized migration and change management support to help enterprises shift to Workspace in less time. Learn more about this program and download our security whitepaper, “A More Secure Alternative.” 

Customers choose Workspace for security

Security is why Snap chose Gmail and Workspace to help improve their security posture. “In fact, since adopting FIDO2 Security Keys and moving to shorter login sessions across our company, we’ve had zero account takeovers for more than two years,” said Nick Reva, head of corporate security engineering for Snap. You can learn more about how Snap was able to achieve this outcome by watching their Cloud Next ‘24 session.

Similarly, the City of Dearborn replaced its legacy email solution, and according to Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud: “Keeping our citizens’ data safe is paramount to our mission, and we chose Gmail primarily because of its security. After replacing a legacy email provider with Gmail, our users noticed a meaningful decrease in spam, phishing, and malware, helping us reduce our cybersecurity risks.” 

Security has long been a top reason organizations choose Gmail and Workspace. It was true 20 years ago when Google launched Gmail with advanced spam filters, and it’s true today, with automated AI defenses aimed at combating radically more sophisticated attacks. As the threat landscape continues to evolve, security remains at the foundation of everything we do.