Speed-driven email security: effective tactics for phishing mitigation

As phishing attacks grow faster and more sophisticated, security teams must respond with equal speed and precision. This article explores six practical strategies, from clustering emails and automating playbooks to balancing human oversight with AI, to help organisations detect, contain, and neutralise threats efficiently, maximising protection without overburdening staff

In today’s threat landscape, speed and precision are everything. Security teams are facing increasing pressures from higher workloads and a shrinking pool of skilled personnel, so understanding how to deliver protection with efficiency is vital.   

As email-based attacks grow more sophisticated and frequent, organisations must be able to identify and neutralise threats quickly, before damage occurs. Adopting an integrated approach that leverages the right tools, vital live threat insight, with in-house expertise will be an organisation’s best chance of mitigating threats as they arise.

In this article, we will share six key strategies and tools to dramatically reduce response time while enhancing accuracy, driving fast, efficient, and effective incident response.

1. Respond to Email Clusters, Not Individual Emails
Handling each phishing email separately is inefficient. Instead, group similar emails into clusters based on shared indicators. This approach allows analysts to investigate entire phishing campaigns at once, reducing manual effort and enabling faster, more effective threat mitigation.

2. Automate with Playbooks and Triggers
Automation speeds up response without sacrificing accuracy. By using predefined playbooks, you can categorise threats, generate tickets, analyse malicious content, notify relevant teams, and inform reporting users—all automatically. Triggers execute these playbooks based on specific criteria, streamlining incident response and conserving analyst resources.

3. Orchestrate Teams and Tools Effectively
Speedy mitigation requires coordination. Integrate your security tools and ensure the right teams are alerted at the right time. Use APIs and out-of-the-box integrations to connect systems and eliminate silos. Incorporate AI-driven spam filters tailored to your environment to reduce noise and focus attention on real threats.

4. Quickly Find and Quarantine Threats
Once a threat is identified, it must be contained fast. Use tools that allow rapid searching, indexing, and quarantining of emails across your network. One-click quarantine (and un-quarantine) capabilities across platforms like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace prevent exposure and help root out entire phishing campaigns efficiently.

5. Balance Automation with Human Oversight
Automation accelerates response but can’t replace human judgment. Analysts bring contextual understanding that machines lack, especially as phishing emails become more sophisticated. Maintain analyst control over key decisions and support them with threat intelligence and indicators of compromise to ensure accurate, timely actions.

6. Enhance Your Existing Security Environment
Effective threat mitigation shouldn’t require starting from scratch. Use solutions that integrate seamlessly with your current infrastructure to enhance performance without overburdening your team. Whether in-house or through managed services, ensure you have access to expertise and real-time intelligence to scale your defenses and maintain continuous protection.

As threats continue to evolve at speed to penetrate defences, even the best email security solutions won’t stop every one from getting through. Read the full eBook to understand a clear path for security teams to deliver faster, smarter email threat response.

Further Information

This article has been produced in collaboration with Cofense. To find out how Cofense could help your teams detect and respond to phishing campaigns in minutes, rather than hours, visit www.Cofense.com or request a demo today.