More than 485,000 US businesses have adopted Office 365, along with more than 102,000 in the UK, 16,400 in Germany, and 11,500 in France. With SMBs making up 60 percent of the global workforce, Office 365 has created a windfall for MSPs looking to sell add-on solutions to SMBs users and to transition current and prospective clients to Office 365. Cybercriminals have taken notice.
Office 365 is a top target for cyberattacks
Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 58 percent of cyberattacks in 2018 took place at SMBs. Businesses using Office 365 are seeing staggering numbers of phishing, spear phishing, and malware emails. Microsoft was the most impersonated brand in phishing attacks for five quarters between 2018 and 2019, only inched out of the top spot by PayPal in Q3 2019. This presents MSPs with a challenge.
Microsoft’s native email security for Office 365, Exchange Online Protection (EOP), is known to be weak across the board, receiving a -15 percent protection rating from SE Labs. Despite this, SMBs that are not educated about the deficiencies of EOP continue to rely on it alone for email protection. SMBs that use EOP risk being breached, and the MSPs that service them risk being held responsible.
[Related] Office 365 Phishing Attacks: How Hackers Get Access to Your Business
Email security for Office 365 presents a high-margin opportunity
Despite the cybersecurity challenges, MSPs have an opportunity to offer third-party email security products for Office 365 as an add-on solution. Not only does it provide an added layer of protection for both the SMB and MSP, but it also creates added margins on top of Office 365.
Read more: https://www.vadesecure.com/en/boosting-email-security-for-office-365/
