The Hidden Gaps in Email Security: What Your SEG Isn’t Catching

It's simple to think that if you've installed a Secure Email Gateway (SEG), your company is safe. After all, that is what it's for—to keep out spam, malware, and phishing attacks before they hit your inbox. But the reality is, these old-school email defences aren't doing as fine a job as you might believe. Real-world data is now showing what many security teams have suspected for years: SEGs are missing more threats than they're catching.

What the Data Tells Us

New research, based on a comprehensive analysis of more than 15,000 organizations, presents a troubling picture. For every 100 mailboxes, 67.50 phishing emails evade SEG defences monthly on average. These aren't test simulations or theoretical models—these are actual attacks dropping right into individuals' inboxes. That's more than 800 missed phishing threats annually per 100 mailboxes.

And these aren't innocuous errors. Each successful phishing email takes 27.50 minutes to resolve on average. That doesn't sound like a lot, but when you extrapolate that across an organization, the figures become a major issue. The price tag? Approximately Rs 3,000 per incident. The larger concern? These attacks eat up almost a third of IT and security staff's time. Time that would otherwise be devoted to active improvement or high-priority projects is spent mopping up from email attacks that should have been blocked.

It's Worse for Smaller Organizations

One of the more troubling revelations is how much worse this issue is for smaller businesses. Firms with fewer than 100 mailboxes are as much as 7.50 times more likely to see skipped attacks than larger corporations. Why? Smaller entities lack the resources or personnel to monitor and manage sophisticated SEG systems. This exposes them to higher risks and puts them in the same league as large businesses when it comes to sophisticated threats—without the same protections.

Whether you’re a small business or a growing enterprise, email threats are evolving faster than most SEGs can handle. Attackers are constantly adjusting their methods, using social engineering, impersonation, malware, deepfake, and zero-day phishing tactics to stay one step ahead.

The Most Commonly Missed Attacks

Let's discuss the type of attacks that frequently get through conventional email security measures. They're not blatant spam with typos and suspicious links. Phishing emails today are refined, personalized, and crafted to appear as though they should be in your mailbox.

One of the most frequently occurring threats is vendor scams. These attacks are sophisticatedly masqueraded as authentic communication from established vendors or service providers. The emails might contain authentic names, logos, signatures, and even quoting previous conversations in order to create trust. It only requires a timely false invoice or a slight modification in a bank account number, and an unsuspecting employee from Accounts payable, might transfer company money directly into the attacker's Account. As such emails seldom carry attachments or links, they pass through conventional filters with ease.

Another emerging threat is very perilous and that is Business Email Compromise (BEC). Here, attackers get unauthorized access to an actual corporate email account—through compromised credentials often—and then misuse the account for sending out compelling emails from the organization itself. Since the email is originating from a known inside source, it's next to impossible for regular security appliances to pick up anything malicious. The attacker can claim to be a CFO asking for a wire transfer or a representation of HR inquiring about employees' data. The requests sound urgent, legit, and life-threateningly normal.

These types of threats—vendor scams, BEC from inside, and clean phish emails—are precisely the ones that legacy architectures fall behind. And they're getting more numerous, more sophisticated, and more costly to overlook.

Why SEGs Alone Are Not Enough?

The basic flaw in conventional SEGs is that they are heavily based on known dangers—things like blacklisted domains, sender reputation, or signature scanning. But phishing campaigns these days are designed to evade them. They employ brand-new domains, crafty messages, and authentic-looking emails to operate undetected.

SEG technology just wasn't built to keep pace with this degree of sophistication. And regardless of how much tweaking you perform or how many regulations you implement, the threats are becoming smarter.

The outcome? Increasing numbers of attacks finding their way into employee mailboxes—undetected and unseen.

What's the Solution?

At SRC Cyber Solutions, we think email security must be more than just the old filters and gateways. That's why our email security service is driven by next-generation AI, ML and HI Human intelligence). Our Self learning AI-powered solution goes beyond SEGs—learning from real threats, adapting to new tactics, and detecting what others miss. It’s a smarter, more efficient approach that saves both time and money. We transcend the constraints of SEGs by employing smart systems that learn from actual threats, evolve with new attack trends, and detect what conventional tools cannot.[SK1] 

Our AI-based solution doesn’t just look for suspicious links or attachments—it understands context and senders’ intent. Powered by advanced language models and NLP, it analyses writing style, sender behaviour, conversation history, and subtle signals to catch what SEGs can’t. Whether it’s an impersonation attempt, vendor scam, or BEC attack, our system recognizes when something feels off—because it doesn’t just scan emails, it truly understands them.

[SK2] What makes our solution even more potent is its layered defence mechanism. With democratized threat protection, each user becomes part of a collective defence system—bolstering detection across the board. Our adaptive AI constantly improves spam hygiene from real-time inputs, and Layer 2 and Layer 3 defences provide an essential human protection layer that complements machine intelligence. And with Themis, our automated detection and remediation engine, threats are detected and eliminated in seconds—reducing risk without slowing you down.

Built for Businesses of All Sizes

No matter if you're a 5-member team or an international business, our solution adapts to your size and is highly scalable. Small businesses enjoy automated protection without the need for in-house security specialists, and large organizations enjoy the depth and accuracy our AI delivers.[SK3]  It just works with your current email infrastructure—no changes or downtime necessary (no changes in the MS records), so your team is protected without increasing complexity or losing productivity.

For bigger organizations, we also automate the response process with End User Quarantine Reports. These enable users to view and dispute quarantined emails themselves, without needing back-and-forth communication with IT. It's a more intelligent, more efficient way to manage incidents—streamlining bureaucracy while providing teams with more control and visibility.

Our solution seamlessly integrates with your existing email platform—no major updates or setups are required. With agent-less deployment that only takes a few minutes on Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, setup is fast and disruption-free. We secure your team without adding complexity or slowing things down, so your attention remains where it should be—on your business.

Better Protection, Less Stress

The future of email security is not about blocking more threats—about doing it smarter. AI and ML provide a path that is proactive, adaptive, and far more effective. At SRC Cyber Solutions, we believe that your business shouldn't just be cobbled together with old-school defences. With our AI-driven email security, you have peace of mind knowing your inboxes are being protected by the smartest tools on the market.

If you're ready to stop playing catch-up with phishing attacks and begin getting ahead of them, call us. We can assist you in closing the gap that SEGs can't.

About SRC Cyber Solutions LLP

SRC Cyber Solutions LLP is a cybersecurity company focused on protecting organizations from evolving email-based threats. We specialize in delivering advanced, AI-powered email security solutions that go beyond traditional Secure Email Gateways (SEGs). Our service is designed to detect and stop sophisticated attacks like Business Email Compromise (BEC), vendor scams, and clean phishing emails that often bypass legacy systems. 

What sets our email security apart is its ability to understand context, behavior, and intent—using machine learning, natural language processing, and real-time threat intelligence. It integrates seamlessly with platforms like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, requires no major configuration changes, and works instantly with agentless deployment. Whether you're a small business or a large enterprise, our solution scales with your needs, reduces manual workload, and provides faster detection and response—helping you stay ahead of threats SEGs can’t catch.