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Cisco Secure Email pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco
4.2 out of 5
Badge Leader
1,325 followers
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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Cisco Secure Email offers advanced malware protection, URL filtering, reputation filtering, and powerful spam controls that improve overall email security.
It efficiently prevents spam, malware, and ransomware, significantly reducing unnecessary emails and enhancing productivity, especially in wide-scale environments like hospitals.
Cisco Secure Email provides detailed tracking and alerts for email activities, notifying users about the path and actions of emails post-delivery, even if initially unchecked.
It integrates seamlessly with other Cisco security services, enhancing its effectiveness through cohesive technological alignment and advanced threat intelligence capabilities.
The flexibility to configure specific filters and rules enhances Cisco Secure Email's ability to target unique organizational needs, improving its efficacy in blocking malicious emails and phishing attempts.

CONS

The reporting functionality needs improvement.
Building a comprehensive dictionary for phishing detection is cumbersome due to the lack of artificial intelligence.
License renewal and the smart licensing mode cause significant difficulties and cannot revert to the legacy mode.
The pricing is relatively high, prompting smaller businesses to opt for more cost-effective solutions.
Discontinuation of physical hardware presents challenges, making virtual appliances the only option.
 

Cisco Secure Email Pros review quotes

PC
May 31, 2020
It does a great job of preventing spam, malware, and ransomware. I can only go by what people have told me and what I've seen, but I have not seen spam in a year and a half to two years in my own company mailbox. And there are not a lot of catches where it's catching something that should have gotten through, either.
AF
May 12, 2022
Cisco Secure Email Cloud Gateway has allowed our users to be able to concentrate on the emails that they do receive. Previously, our users had to deal with nine million additional emails across the organization, which is nearly 1,000 emails per user to have to deal with a month. That's a massive amount for our staff to deal with and probably several hours of their time. We have a lot of clinical staff, being a hospital. We want to make our staff as productive as possible. By removing a lot of that spam and phishing type emails, this allows them to do their job.
Informate83d - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 18, 2019
It has the IMS engine, Intelligent Multi-Scan engine, and it does a good job, right out-of-the-box, of blocking the vast majority of things that should be blocked.
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Email. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
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reviewer1515012 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 21, 2021
The filtering is definitely better at catching both spam and malicious messages, and there's a lot of extremely granular ability for setting up rules. You can do it the way you want to. The Microsoft solution tends to be pretty limited in how it allows some of that to be done.
AS
Apr 22, 2019
Initially, the most valuable feature for us was the SenderBase Reputation, because that reduced the number of emails that were even considered by the system by a huge number...
Enrique Diaz Jolly - PeerSpot reviewer
May 27, 2022
It has an intuitive, clear graphical interface where you can deploy your policies and understand the overall flow. There are a lot of things that you cannot handle on the graphic interface, like message filters. For this, you need to go to a lower level where you have more power, like command line interface. So, this solution has the best of both worlds. There are not a lot of bells and whistles. It is more practical with access to most features that you can configure.
FL
Jun 15, 2023
Spam controls are excellent because they are a powerful feature that operates almost effortlessly.
MR
Mar 3, 2021
The malicious URL scanning, as well as the anti-malware features, have been really useful for us in our environment.
JoseSilva - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 30, 2023
The advanced phishing protection and the integration with the awareness tool that Cisco has embedded into the solution to bring awareness to the customers about the dangers of phishing attacks and other things that come from email are the most valuable features.
CN
Aug 4, 2021
It is doing its work. It is doing what it was actually designed to do. It has ensured we don't have business email compromises, and it has also ensured that our brand Galaxy is unique all year round.
 

Cisco Secure Email Cons review quotes

PC
May 31, 2020
Typically, in a phishing email, they try to use a name everybody's going to recognize, like the CEO's name or the CFO's name... With this appliance, the way it's designed at the moment, for us to really stop that with any level of confidence, we have to build a dictionary of all the names of the people we want it to check, and all the ways they could be spelled. My name would be in there as Phillip Collins, Phillip D. Collins, Phillip Dean Collins, Phil Collins, Phil D. Collins. There could be eight or 10 variations of my name that we'd have to put in the dictionary. There's no artificial intelligence to say "Phil Collins" could be all these other things, and to stop phishing from coming through in that way.
AF
May 12, 2022
I would like more functionality and how to use it for Level 2 type staff. The biggest issue is it needs to be easier to use and navigate.
Informate83d - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 18, 2019
It would be nice to have an easier way to check on the health of the system, how stressed these appliances are. Sure, you can do it, but it would be helpful to have an easier way to do it, maybe even at a glance.
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Email. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1515012 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 21, 2021
The interface is dated. It has looked pretty much the same for 15 years or so. It would be helpful to be able to do everything from one spot. The centralized quarantine and reporting are completely separate from policy administration.
AS
Apr 22, 2019
We have occasionally had hardware problems because we are using an appliance-based solution, but that might change. We may consider going to virtual systems.
Enrique Diaz Jolly - PeerSpot reviewer
May 27, 2022
The Forged Email Detection feature needs improvement, particularly with domain. The sensors are not that good and the rules sets are unclear.
FL
Jun 15, 2023
I have some frustrations with the user experience in the interface, specifically with regard to making a list of people for whom I want to allow email access.
MR
Mar 3, 2021
The UI is definitely one area of improvement because it doesn't match other interfaces and the navigation can be a little clunky.
JoseSilva - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 30, 2023
Cisco is already providing a very good environment with the IronPort solution, but there could be some more integration with other products. For instance, an integration with the EDR solution could be there to raise an alert.
CN
Aug 4, 2021
The area of license renewal should be improved. We normally renew our license every year. There is a feature called smart licensing, and I switched from the legacy mode to the smart licensing mode because of what I thought smart licensing does. I thought it would make licensing renewal seamless and very swift, but ever since I've switched to smart licensing, each time I want to renew my license, it is a whole lot of headache. The process is not smooth, and I had to keep calling Cisco TAC to see how the issue can be resolved. At one point, I wanted to revert back to the legacy mode, but I can't revert. Once you switch from the legacy mode to the smart licensing mode, you can't revert. They should improve on the visibility of the smart licensing mode so that it can indeed be smart and easier to use for the license renewal every year. That is one challenge.