Edison Software today announced the introduction of Edison Mail+, a brand new AI-based email security subscription plan offering groundbreaking technology engineered to solve the $12 Billion email scam epidemic preying on consumers worldwide. The plan offers four new anti-phishing and security enhancing features that can be layered on top of the existing Edison Mail iOS app, including Verify Sender, Spam Blocker, Inbox Caller ID, and Validate Contacts. Edison Mail+ is available immediately on the App Store for $14.99 per month, or $99.99 per year.
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Introducing Edison Mail+
For the first time, email phishing scam detection comes to your mobile device and inbox with Edison Mail+, the only app offering a critical extra layer of deep-scan protection to detect, warn, and verify potential email attacks as soon as they enter the mailbox. Receive a warning before falling victim to costly phishing, identity spoofing, and malware efforts.
Verify Sender, the vanguard feature of Edison Mail+, is a powerful new AI-based technical protocol that conducts a handshake between sender/receiver across inbound mail. If a sender’s email server doesn’t respond as “authentic” mail should, a suspicious email warning to the user is triggered. Verify Sender then applies a four-level deep investigation of new emails in real-time as they enter the inbox to assess for potential threats or scams.
The first layer of investigation is SPF & DMARC validation. Edison Mail+ checks how trustworthy the origin of an email is based on whether it is a permitted sender by the domain owner or not. While some email service providers offer Authenticated Logo functionality based on an open standard called BIMI, which requires email senders to implement DMARC configuration and host their brand image at a certain URL — only 2% of email senders1, and less than 100 of the Fortune 500, have a valid DMARC configuration and the adoption rate is extremely low (2% in 10 years). Meanwhile, hackers can still impersonate most of the businesses and organizations that do not have DMARC, and authenticated logos are not effective against those types of spoof-email phishing attacks.
With 98% of email senders not configuring their domains securely via DMARC, they require additional anti-phishing protection for effective security. Verify Sender is unique and set apart from anti-phishing technology offered by existing email service providers because it offers the following layers of security to cover the 98% of senders that do not have DMARC configured:
- Detects and alerts you in real-time if emails are sent from invalid disposable domains that frequently pass through your email service provider undetected. (Edison Mail sends an anonymous TCP connection to the sender’s domain and a probe command to check if the domain can receive email.)
- Detects name spoofing based on your previous communication history (Edison Mail’s built-in AI can recognize and differentiate between who normally contacts you or not).
- Scans 70+ spam databases in real-time that may have registered and flagged the email sender as a spam or scam associated address.
Additionally, all of the AI-based deep-scanning takes place on the mobile handset directly, no information leaves your device, and the functionality is built securely into your inbox to protect you from scams.
Edison Mail+ also offers Spam Blocker, a new way to permanently banish bothersome calls and texts from strangers or overly persistent individuals, from the safety of your mailbox. Phone calls and text messages are the second largest entry point for spam, following email. In 2020, consumers receive an average of 28 spam calls per month. Americans lost nearly $9 billion from phone scams in 2018, when over 26 million robocalls were made to US phones (a 46% year-over-year growth). Spam Blocker is a natural extension of existing Edison Mail features to combat email spam, including Block Sender, Unsubscribe, and automatic blocking of read receipts.
Inbox Caller ID also helps combat spam and scams by identifying unknown callers and text message senders before you respond. The feature discovers phone numbers in your mailbox signatures and matches them to names of email senders. The information is then displayed when you receive a call or text message, allowing more opportunity to screen and avoid bothersome or possibly dangerous conversations before they happen.
Edison Mail+ also includes a feature to Validate Contacts, putting AI-based contact recognition into your inbox, to regularly check whether contact information you have in your iPhone’s address book matches the details of the email sender contacting you. Validate contact details and update any detail for your contact in one tap as their information changes. Simplify updating information in your phone address book, to never question whether you have the right contact details for who you know.
The new features work alongside existing Edison Mail app capabilities like automatic blocking of read receipts, block sender, and unsubscribe. All features combined give back control over who contacts you. Edison Mail is one of the few email apps that does not have any ads or allow ad targeting.
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Email Phishing & Scams Are Not Slowing — They Continue to Grow
The number of email phishing and scams are staggering. According to Verizon2, 30% of phishing messages get opened by targeted users. In 2018, the FBI reported that Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams attempting to conduct unauthorized wire transfers over email accounted for $12 billion in losses. Since then, in 2019, 76% of businesses reported3 being a victim of a phishing attack. Additionally, as much as 60% of Americans say4 they or a family member have been victims of a security scam or breach, and 15% of people5 successfully phished will be targeted at least one more time within the year. Phishing attempts grew6 65% in 2019 and accounted for 90% of data breaches, while around 1.5 million7 new phishing sites are created each month.
“Email has become a landmine for phishing and scams and consumers need a first line of defense in their mailbox to remove the constant fear of being attacked,” said Mikael Berner, CEO and Co-Founder at Edison Software. “Just as you wouldn’t leave your front door unlocked for strangers to walk in, everyone should have confidence that scammers aren’t arriving in your inbox, waiting to strike. Email service providers and enterprise software developers haven’t been able to solve this problem, but Edison Mail+ is engineered with unique AI-based anti-phishing technology that is significantly more effective protection than what is currently offered for mobile devices today.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has only furthered today’s email phishing epidemic. Hackers have made headlines throughout 2020 for using malware and fraudulent emails to trick health organizations into sharing vaccine research and information about medical supply chains. Scammers sent fake emails from real domains to solicit monetary donations for the COVID-19 cause, and some organizations have spent millions of dollars from fake emails on medical supplies that didn’t exist.
Since launching on iOS in April 2016, Edison Mail has blocked over 1 Billion read receipt tracking attempts for its users, sent 14 million+ flight notifications (i.e. on-time vs. delayed, gate changes, etc.), provided shipping alerts for over 115 million packages, and organized over 660 million receipts. Edison Mail is the fastest and most popular independent mail app available today. Built to deliver happiness to email users and supported by a privacy-forward and research-backed business model with no ads and no third-party ad targeting allowed.
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