ChannelPro Network published a roundup of vendors delivering real value to MSPs. Five companies made the list. Mailprotector was one of them, recognized specifically for bringing zero trust to email security.
The reason is simple: zero trust has never really been applied to email. Well, not properly, until Mailprotector figured out how. That’s the innovation ChannelPro recognized.
The fact is, email is still the main entry point in cyberattacks, and the tools built to stop that haven’t changed the fundamental assumption. Trust is still the default for email. The industry’s answer has always been to add another layer on top of a broken model. A gateway here, an API tool bolted on there, more filters stacked on top of filters. The complexity keeps growing, and the underlying problem stays unsolved.
Zero trust flips that model entirely. Where traditional email security starts with delivery and catches what it can, Shield starts from a different place: nothing deserves to get to your inbox until it proves that it belongs. It’s not a filter. It’s a philosophy, and it’s the foundation on which everything else is built. As CTO Ben Hathaway put it, zero trust isn’t a specific feature; it’s an architecture decision, and every capability in Shield sits on top of it.
That foundation took years to get right. The vision for Shield came out of a decade of asking what would happen if the model were flipped entirely. The timing mattered too. Doing zero trust for email the right way requires real-time intelligence and infrastructure that simply didn’t exist until recently. Recent advancements in technology finally made it possible to build something the space had never seen before, in a category that had gone largely unchanged for years.
Here’s the problem David Setzer laid out at Zero Trust World earlier this year: our lives are inundated with junk we don’t want. Most people think the problem with email security is the bad stuff getting through. His argument was more uncomfortable than that. It’s the noise itself. The junk that fills your inbox trains you to stop paying attention, and that’s what makes the real threats so dangerous.
“We know that email is the prime attack vector in 90% of all cyberattacks. Our goal is to solve that problem while also cutting through all the noise and junk that clogs inboxes. We rebuilt the platform from the ground up as a Zero Trust application to help MSPs ensure their clients get what they want and not what they don’t want.” – David Setzer, CEO, Mailprotector
Delivering that for MSPs means zero trust has to be something Partners can actually manage, and clients can actually use. Shield combines gateway and API-layer protection in a single product, so Partners aren’t paying two vendors for two layers of coverage. This allows for truly unique features like the HUD, which updates security information in real time, giving users live risk information right in the context of their inbox rather than a static banner they learn to ignore. And Email Traffic Control, the no-code workflow builder inside Shield, lets MSPs build custom security policies and automate responses across their entire client base without writing a line of code.
Nobody else does zero trust for email. That’s not a marketing claim. It’s the differentiator that a category full of AI-powered badges and layered stacks hasn’t managed to replicate, because the architecture required to do it properly is harder to build than a feature. Security without usage is useless, and everything on the platform was built with that in mind.
The ChannelPro list reflects what happens when a stale category finally gets the innovation it’s been waiting for.
Read the full ChannelPro feature: Beyond Tools: How These 5 Leading Vendors Power Up MSP Value
FAQs:
Why did Mailprotector make ChannelPro’s top MSP vendor list?
Mailprotector was recognized for bringing zero trust to email security, with Shield and Email Traffic Control cited as key drivers of value for MSPs.
What does zero trust mean for email security?
Zero trust applied to email means no message is trusted by default. Every email has to prove it belongs before reaching the inbox. Shield starts from the position that nothing deserves to get to your inbox until it earns its way there, and continues evaluating messages post-delivery through a live HUD rather than a one-time stamp.
What is wrong with traditional email security?
Traditional email security starts with delivery and catches what it can. It’s a trust-first, filter-second model that the industry has patched with more and more layers rather than fixing the underlying assumption. Shield flips that model entirely.
Is zero trust the same as AI-powered email security?
No. Zero trust is a security architecture and philosophy. AI is a tool. Shield uses the zero trust philosophy as its foundation and puts various technologies, including AI, to work in service of that architecture where they’re effective. They’re not the same thing and shouldn’t be conflated.
What is Mailprotector Shield?
Shield is the best of gateway and API protection, combined with complete edge-to-inbox coverage.
What is Email Traffic Control?
Email Traffic Control (ETC) is a no-code workflow builder inside Shield that replaces rigid rule logic with intelligent, point-and-click workflows to give administrators a new level of control over email handling.
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