Maximizing ROI in Email Security: Turning Protection into Strategic Value

Email security ROI is now a top priority for security leaders—and for good reason. According to Abnormal’s latest threat research, phishing accounts for over 76% of advanced email attacks, while business email compromise (BEC) incidents rose more than 54% year over year.

These increasingly sophisticated threats bypass legacy email protection platforms and increase both financial and operational risk. In response, organizations are investing in modern email security solutions that not only block attacks but also deliver measurable returns.

According to Forrester, advanced email security solutions can yield a 278% ROI. This means AI-powered, behavior-based detection has become a strategic enabler of efficiency, email risk mitigation, and business continuity.

In this article, we’ll show you how to measure and maximize email security ROI and build a compelling business case that resonates with stakeholders.

Email-based threats significantly weaken email security ROI by introducing both immediate losses and long-term costs. From financial damage and operational disruption to compliance penalties and reputational harm, these attacks erode the value of security investments. Understanding these impacts and the emerging attacks and trends is essential for justifying the need for advanced email protection.

Email attacks often result in substantial and unplanned financial costs. BEC alone led to $2.77 billion in reported losses in 2024.

These costs include:

• Ransom payments and fraudulent wire transfers

• Legal and regulatory fees

• Incident response and forensic investigation

• Business interruption and revenue loss

When these incidents occur, they immediately reduce the return on any prior security investment, particularly when legacy tools fail to prevent them.

Operational disruption is one of the most immediate and costly consequences of email threats. An analysis of 500 significant breaches in 2024 found that 86% of these incidents led to tangible business impact, including service downtime, financial loss, or reputational damage.

These attacks cause operational impacts that include:

• Lost access to email, collaboration tools, and internal systems

• Delayed customer communications and service delivery

• IT and security teams diverted from strategic work

• Loss of sensitive or proprietary data

These disruptions create indirect costs that quickly compound, reducing overall efficiency and diminishing long-term email security ROI.

Email-based breaches impact people. When sensitive data is exposed or business operations are disrupted, the damage to customer relationships and brand credibility can be long-lasting.

IBM’s research shows that lost business, driven by downtime, customer turnover, and reputation damage, accounted for the largest share of breach-related costs, totaling $2.8 million on average. These costs also grew faster than any other breach-related expense, up nearly 11% year over year.

This erosion of trust often leads to:

• Customers choosing competitors due to perceived security weaknesses

• Increased spend on support, credit monitoring, and public relations

• Delayed sales cycles or lost renewals due to credibility concerns

• Executive focus shifting to crisis management instead of growth

Even when technical issues are resolved quickly, restoring confidence among customers and partners takes far longer. For security leaders, this delayed reputational recovery creates a clear drag on email security ROI, especially if existing tools failed to prevent the breach.

Phishing, BEC, and ransomware are among the most damaging forms of email-based attacks. According to Abnormal’s H1 2025 Threat Report:

• Phishing accounts for over 76% of advanced email threats

• BEC attacks increased by more than 54% year-over-year

These attacks frequently bypass traditional phishing prevention tools and result in:

• Direct financial theft

• Account compromise and lateral movement

• Widespread data exposure or operational lockout

The rising prevalence and success rate of these threats make it difficult for legacy systems to deliver a meaningful return, especially when the cost of a single breach far outweighs the investment in prevention.

Security incidents often lead to violations of privacy and data protection regulations, particularly when sensitive information is exposed via email, highlighting the importance of email security compliance. Noncompliance with frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, or CCPA can result in multi-million-dollar fines.

Other regulatory consequences include:

• Breach notification requirements that accelerate customer churn

• Increased oversight, audits, and reporting burdens

• Permanent damage to compliance scores and vendor reputations

These penalties increase the total cost of email breaches and create sustained financial drag that weakens ROI for years to come.

Understanding email security ROI is essential for justifying cybersecurity investments, allocating budget, and communicating value to stakeholders.

Here’s a basic ROI formula you can use:

(Value Gained – Total Cost of Ownership) / Total Cost of Ownership × 100

To move beyond surface-level calculations, security leaders must focus on key email security metrics and evaluate several core dimensions of value.

Advanced email security can significantly reduce the costs associated with successful attacks. Leading indicators of cost avoidance include:

• Reduced breach remediation and recovery expenses

• Less business downtime caused by attack-related outages

• Fewer customer losses due to preserved trust and service continuity

• Lower demand on IT and help desk resources

Each of these outcomes contributes directly to measurable ROI by lowering the financial impact of security incidents.

Modern email security platforms improve productivity by streamlining detection, response, and threat management, enhancing SOC efficiency through email security automation. Key efficiency metrics include:

• Time saved through automated email threat detection and analysis

• Security teams freed from manual investigation and repetitive tasks

• Faster incident response, reducing dwell time and limiting exposure

By reclaiming time and focusing resources on higher-value work, organizations improve the return on their cybersecurity investments.

Strong email defenses help reduce both the frequency and impact of attacks. Organizations should track risk-related gains such as:

• Declines in phishing success rates

• Reduced volume of malicious and unwanted email

• Greater adoption of secure practices like MFA due to improved awareness

Although some risk reduction is harder to quantify, these improvements strengthen resilience and drive long-term ROI by preventing future loss.

Accurate ROI measurement requires a full understanding of the Total Cost of Ownership for email security. When evaluating security solutions, TCO includes:

• Initial Costs: Software, hardware, and deployment

• Ongoing Costs: Licensing, maintenance, support

• Indirect Costs: Training, internal admin, policy management

Many organizations underestimate these indirect costs, which can meaningfully affect ROI.

To assess ROI, compare the total investment with the security, operational, and financial outcomes delivered. This includes:

• Savings from avoided business disruption and fraud

• Long-term risk reduction from stronger detection and prevention, leveraging advances in AI in cybersecurity

• Avoided regulatory penalties and brand damage

Preventing high-cost threats, such as BEC, often justifies the investment on its own.

Demonstrating the value of email security requires more than a technical explanation—it demands a clear connection between security outcomes and business objectives. By framing your proposal around email security ROI, you can show how the right investment protects revenue, reduces risk, and enables growth.

Position email security as a business enabler, not just a risk reducer. Connecting security to core goals, including a robust cloud email security strategy, improves executive alignment and accelerates buy-in.

• Enable Growth: Secure communication supports digital transformation and cloud adoption.

• Reduce Risk: Blocking advanced threats like phishing and BEC prevents costly incidents.

• Ensure Compliance: Meeting regulatory mandates protects revenue and reduces legal exposure.

• Protect Brand: Strong security safeguards trust and reputation, especially post-breach

Data backs the strongest business cases. Use financial and operational metrics to demonstrate tangible value.

• Cost Avoidance: Present reduced breach remediation, regulatory fines, and IT workload.

• Efficiency Gains: Highlight time savings from automated detection and streamlined response.

• Risk Reduction: Showcase fewer successful phishing attempts and stronger controls.

• Real-World Results: Reference proven outcomes like Abnormal’s 278% ROI.

A strong email security business case should include:

1. Executive Summary: Briefly state the problem, proposed solution, and expected ROI.

2. Current Risk Assessment: Highlight threats bypassing legacy tools and potential consequences.

3. Solution Overview: Describe how modern, AI-native email security addresses those gaps.

4. Strategic Alignment: Show how the investment supports digital, compliance, and risk objectives.

5. Cost-Benefit Analysis: Compare TCO with cost avoidance and performance improvements.

6. Metrics and Measurement: Include KPIs like attacks blocked, mean time to respond, and compliance pass rates.

7. Implementation Roadmap: Outline steps, owners, and timeline to minimize disruption.

8. Risk of Inaction: Call out the financial, operational, and reputational risks of maintaining the status quo.

9. Final Recommendation: Make the ask clear, backed by evidence and urgency.

To resonate with leadership, avoid overly technical language. Focus on strategic impact and business value.

Here are some examples:

• “This investment reduces the risk of a $1M+ phishing incident by more than 90%.”

• “Our current tool misses 80% of BEC attempts—this closes that gap.”

• “Top-tier enterprises are upgrading to solutions from AI-native vendors for better protection and efficiency.”

Email is the highest-volume threat vector in most organizations. Demonstrating ROI on securing it is essential to protecting revenue, reputation, and resilience.

Show how your proposed email protection platform delivers:

• AI-based anomaly detection

• Defense against phishing, malware, and zero-day attacks

• Integrated data loss prevention (DLP)

• Automated response workflows

• Analytics for compliance and risk reporting

• Scalability for cloud and hybrid environments

Emphasize compliance and industry fit:

• Support for GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, and CCPA

• Defense against third-party and supply chain threats

• Security for remote and hybrid workforces

• Tools to reduce audit risk and regulatory exposure

As email threats evolve, the cost of inaction rises. Calculating and communicating email security ROI is no longer optional—it’s central to effective cybersecurity investment strategy.

Behavioral AI has transformed how organizations detect and stop threats, with some seeing returns as high as 278%. But ROI only matters when security leaders can translate technical benefits into business outcomes.

Ready to see how modern email security delivers measurable value? Book a demo to explore how Abnormal stops the attacks others miss.