Exclusive: How Proofpoint's partnership with Microsoft is enhancing security

Proofpoint has announced a global, strategic partnership with Microsoft aimed at significantly enhancing human-centric security for their shared customers.

Jennifer Cheng, who heads Proofpoint's cybersecurity strategy for Asia Pacific and Japan, said the partnership represents a major evolution from earlier collaborations, moving beyond technology integration into creating tangible economic value for mutual customers.

"We have well-adopted existing technology integrations with Microsoft Defender and other Microsoft technologies. The focus there was initially around sharing threat intelligence," she explained. "But now, this partnership is so much more significant because we're trying to look at creating economic value for mutual customers."

Proofpoint, which specialises in human-centric cybersecurity, has built its reputation on protecting people and organisations against threats targeting email, cloud applications, collaboration tools, and web platforms.

The partnership with Microsoft further strengthens this approach, reflecting a growing recognition of the need to integrate security tools into the fabric of organisations' digital infrastructure.

"Proofpoint has been defending Microsoft infrastructure for many years. We already have a lot of mutual customers," Cheng explained.

"More and more people are experiencing pressure to look at what they can do more with any and every vendor. I think that's where this partnership is really powerful."

While Microsoft's own security portfolio is comprehensive, Jennifer believes the partnership with Proofpoint would allow organisations to benefit from enhanced protection, particularly against sophisticated threats like generative AI-powered cyber-attacks.

"Microsoft's focus is on the workspace tools that make companies work," she added, "but they recognise securing that portfolio with partners like Proofpoint is important."

One key area of the partnership involves Proofpoint's newly announced Core Email Protection API. This tool allows customers to integrate security solutions into their Microsoft environment seamlessly without complex technical changes.

"The intent is to make it even easier to integrate with Microsoft via API, as opposed to having to change your MX record," Cheng explained.

Cheng emphasised the importance of usability in Proofpoint solutions, noting that user experience was central to Proofpoint's strategy otherwise people will try to bypass security. Proofpoint is rebranding its security awareness training platform to 'ZenGuide', aiming to manage human risks and guide end-users at the critical moment of security decision-making rather than simply blocking actions outright. "We're very conscious there are better ways in that grey area, especially when it comes to doing business and how humans operate."

Another critical factor driving this partnership is the need to manage emerging security risks posed by generative AI tools.  Gen AI has significantly altered the threat landscape, creating new vulnerabilities and enabling attackers to craft more convincing threats.

"Gen AI is making it easier than ever for attackers to create threats or create vulnerabilities in the broader landscape."

Proofpoint is addressing these risks by incorporating AI capabilities into its own platforms. This applies to their threat detection as well as data protection capabilities, including automatic privacy protection and data loss prevention features specifically tailored for the challenges posed by Gen AI tools. "Even as somebody is typing in a prompt and entering sensitive information, it can trigger a data loss prevention rule, redact the sensitive content, and prevent it from leaving your organisation," Cheng said.

Proofpoint has a remarkable growth trajectory over the years. Cheng who has been with the company for almost a decade shared, "When I first started, we were about a $250 million company," she explained. "Now we're one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the the world. We have acquired at least one company every year since I've been here."

A significant driver of Proofpoint's sustained growth has been its successful management of mergers and acquisitions, focusing on meaningful integrations that benefit customers directly. "We've done a great job being focused on creating workflows and use cases that makes sense for our customers," she explained.

Another key strength of Proofpoint is the trust it has built with its customers over the years. "I still remember one of our customers said to me during an event, 'You've given me my weekend back to spend with my kids, because I don't have to chase down false positive alerts,'" Cheng said.

"I think that's probably the most powerful thing that anybody can say to a security vendor."
Looking ahead, Cheng expressed enthusiasm about the potential of the Microsoft partnership to extend Proofpoint's market reach and further bolster customer trust. "We've been hearing exciting, positive things from partners and customers, saying that this partnership could really benefit their business," Cheng said.

Cheng highlighted that the essence of Proofpoint's competitive advantage lies in its "human-centric approach."
By embedding human-centric security insights into every product, Proofpoint enables security leaders to educate their businesses effectively about the risks and implications of cybersecurity threats.