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Case Study

Metropolis

At a Glance

Dangerous emails identified: 12,696

Graymails filtered: 191,979

Potential data breaches prevented: 49

Metropolis International Group Transitions From Static SEG to Microsoft 365 and KnowBe4

Mastering the Complexity of Email Domain Management

As a leading media and technology firm, Metropolis International Group (Metropolis) manages over 40 diverse publications, ranging from financial journals to music industry magazines. This variety often results in false email misdirection and impersonation alerts from their Secure Email Gateway (SEG) during internal forwarding. Faced with an uptick in sophisticated phishing attacks evading the SEG, Metropolis wanted to take decisive action to mitigate risk, improve user experience and alleviate the administrative burden on its security team.

Industry

Media and Technology

Location

United Kingdom

Challenge

Static Secure Email Gateway (SEG) technology falling short and missing sophisticated phishing attacks, necessitating improved email security and reduced administrative burden

KnowBe4 Products

Metropolis-sideSeamlessly Migrating Away From the SEG While Ensuring Business Continuity

After deploying KnowBe4 Cloud Email Security, Metropolis decided to transition away from its SEG entirely.

“We rigorously reviewed our email security policies to discern what needed to stay and what was outdated,” says Metropolis IT Manager Chris Jenkins. “Opting for a clean slate, we chose Microsoft Exchange Online Protection, with KnowBe4 Cloud Email Security layered on top for additional security.”

The migration, conducted domain by domain starting with the least active, involved reconfiguring internet traffic and updating crucial settings to secure mail flow.

“Following this adjustment, we activated all the necessary policies. The next stage, which was critical, involved observing and testing the system closely for any missed emails or potential issues that required immediate attention and resolution,” Jenkins says.

Progressively, Metropolis expanded this approach to include their five largest domains. This systematic method allowed Jenkins to strengthen Metropolis’ email security infrastructure gradually, ensuring each domain was adequately secured before moving onto the next.

“The biggest priority for me is about being abundantly cautious when dealing with the business-critical service of email and ensuring mail flow remained uninterrupted throughout,” Jenkins says.

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Metropolis International Elevates Email Security with Advanced Detection, Automated Spam Remediation and Misdirected Email Protection

Having successfully migrated from its SEG provider, Metropolis is now leveraging KnowBe4 Defend’s behavioral AI to detect and neutralize the most sophisticated threats that bypass Microsoft’s native security, identifying 12,696 dangerous emails over a 90-day period.

12,696
dangerous emails identified and 49 potential data breaches prevented in 90 days

“KnowBe4 takes a lot of operational tasks away with automation. Since removing our SEG, the security team no longer wastes time on spam notifications and can focus on more strategic initiatives.”

Chris Jenkins, IT Manager, Metropolis

“With our small team, time-saving features are crucial. Defend’s automatic remediation function is a standout for us — removing malicious emails from everyone’s inboxes at scale without requiring any additional input from the team,” Jenkins says.

Another productivity feature, Graymail Detection, is intelligently classifying unwanted mail and moving it to a dedicated folder before it reaches the inbox, with 191,979 graymails filtered over a single 90-day period.

“KnowBe4 takes a lot of operational tasks away with automation. Since removing our SEG, the security team no longer wastes time on spam notifications and can focus on more strategic initiatives,” Jenkins says.

Users were struggling with misdirected emails and impersonation alerts from their SEG. Now, KnowBe4 Prevent is providing intelligent, bespoke data loss prevention for every Metropolis user.

With a potential data breach avoided every other day over a 90-day period, Paul Wilkins, Chief Technology Officer, says: “The notifications aren’t too frequent, but they appear just often enough to make an impact. Ultimately, switching from our SEG to KnowBe4 has elevated our email security and significantly reduced administrative burden, all while saving on unnecessary costs.” he says.

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