KnowBe4 Defend Ranks First in Microsoft's Real-World Email Security Benchmark

Defend caught 3.7 times more email threats missed by Microsoft Defender than the average add-on

TAMPA BAY, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KnowBe4, the global leader in digital workforce security, securing both humans and AI agents, today announced that KnowBe4 Defend ranked first across all three incremental detection metrics reported by Microsoft in its latest email security benchmark, which measured seven integrated cloud email security (ICES) solutions on live Defender customer data.

KnowBe4 Defend caught 1.11% of malicious email Defender missed, versus a 0.30% average. Its 0.65% overlap with Defender was the lowest measured, and it accounted for 16.92% of post-delivery malicious removals, more than double the average.

“Today's attacks are built to look like normal business conversation,” said Stuart Clark, senior vice president of product at KnowBe4. “Defend reads behavior and relationships, not just payloads, and Microsoft's own data shows how much that layer catches.”

Read KnowBe4's full analysis of the benchmark, and hear Clark discuss the findings in an Oct. 28 webinar.

About KnowBe4
KnowBe4 empowers the whole workforce to make smarter security decisions every day. Trusted by more than 70,000 organizations worldwide, KnowBe4 is the pioneer of digital workforce security, securing both humans and AI agents. The KnowBe4 Platform provides attack simulation and training, email & collaboration security, and agent security powered by AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Defense Agents) and a proprietary Risk Score. The Platform leverages 16 years of behavioral data to combat advanced threats including social engineering, prompt injection, and shadow AI. By securing humans and agents, KnowBe4 leads the industry in workforce trust and defense. More info at knowbe4.com.

Follow KnowBe4 on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Is Microsoft Defender enough on its own?
Defender beat every secure email gateway, while Microsoft says missed threats are rising as AI makes impersonation more convincing. KnowBe4 Defend's low overlap shows the value of an additional behavioral detection layer.

Does a 1.11% catch rate barely help?
No. It counts only threats that have already evaded Defender. KnowBe4 Defend also led on spam and promotional email detection, with 1.88% and 65.24% incremental uplift, respectively.

What should a Microsoft 365 email security layer offer?
Proven incremental detection, low overlap and native integration. KnowBe4 Defend belongs to Microsoft's ICES Vendor Ecosystem.