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When you see “software update available,” does it spark joy? For many of us, the answer is a resounding “no.” But, don’t be fooled into thinking that our new 12.0 release of Cisco Email Security is anything other than extraordinary. Here are three reasons why:

  • Our SVP of Product Management, Jeff Reed, puts it best: “It’s our biggest update in years.” We’ve poured resources into our Cisco Email Security product and it shows in a release that’s full of new features that directly impact our customers’ biggest pain points.
  • Cisco’s 12.0 release is threat focused. From the ground up, this release aims to arm organizations against common threats like phishing and business email compromise. As the frequency of email threats continue to rise, our customers can be confident that we continue to improve our security technology with updates to Sender Domain Reputation and External Threat Feeds (ETF).
  • We’re investing in the user experience. 12.0 for Security Management Appliance introduces Cisco’s next generation user interface and drives administrative intuition forward. A quicker UI, easy-to-read reporting summaries, and the continued trusted results makes it easier than ever to have an integrated approach to your email security posture.

Ready to dive into our latest release? We’ve compiled several resources to help you realize the value of these updates. First, the Release Notes for 12.0 for Email Security and the Release Notes for 12.0 for SMA include what’s new in the release and provides an easy-to-use guide to updating your software. Next, be sure to check out these videos below for a more in depth look at our most noteworthy features:

How-Tos

New to 12.0 is our How-Tos Widget.  This contextual widget provides in-app assistance to users in the form of walkthroughs to accomplish configuration and administrative steps within Cisco Email Security.  This video provides a brief walkthrough of this useful new tool.

External Threat Feeds

We’re excited—this release includes External Threat Feeds (ETF), which support STIX/TAXII. If you’re looking to take advantage of integrating external threat information,  this video walks through how you can add third-party threat feeds into your appliance and configuration.

Sender Domain Reputation (SDR)

Cisco SDR is our next level of providing a reputation verdict for email messages based on a sender’s domain and other attributes.  How does SDR work? This video explains how the reputation of an email is collected and what impact it has on email security.

 

 

DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE)

DANE adds additional ability to our encryption capabilities in Cisco Email Security.  This video dives into the new DANE features and explains how to configure it.

 

Smart Licensing

Why consider using a smart license? It’s easier to control usage, simplifies maintenance and eliminates the need for right-to-use licensing.

Cisco Threat Response

This video is an introduction to the new Cisco Threat Response (CTR) integration with AsyncOS 12.0 for Cisco Email Security. This video will explain how to integrate your Security Management Appliance (SMA) with CTR as a step-by-step walkthrough tutorial.

 

Once you are up to speed on what our 12.0 release can do for you, the final step is to upgrade!  After, be sure to reference the 12.0 User Guide for in-depth administration and further questions regarding services and configuration.

For even more email security resources, be sure to check our Cisco Email Security page regularly for whitepapers, analyst reports, videos and more.

 



Authors

Robert Sherwin

Technical Marketing Engineer, Cisco Secure Email

Security Business Group