Legacy email security and built-in email provider protection both focus on known red flags like malicious URLs and dangerous attachments to detect phishing attempts. But a sophisticated phishing email instead uses impersonation tactics, compromised accounts, redirected URLs, spoofed email addresses that appear legitimate, or a combination of all of these tactics.
In other words, a secure email gateway struggles to detect the socially-engineered element used in an inconspicuous phishing email. And since these emails look like they’re coming from a trusted sender (like an IT team), recipients are more prone to trust and interact with them.
Attackers are constantly evolving, and antiquated email security software hasn’t kept up with the changes in tactics.