• ‍New offering empowers MSSPs to deliver AI-native email security powered by Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI ‍
• Expansion of the Darktrace Defenders Partner Program gives MSSPs greater flexibility and scalability to build and grow managed security services

Darktrace, a global leader in AI for cybersecurity, today announced the launch of its first managed security service offering designed for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), enabling partners to deliver AI-native email security services built on its industry-leading Darktrace / EMAIL™ solution, providing real-time detection, investigation, and response across the entire email and messaging ecosystem. The launch is supported by updates to the Darktrace Defenders Partner Program designed to provide flexibility and scalability for partners at every stage of their services maturity, helping them expand security offerings and deliver AI-native protection to customers around the world.

Email threats continue to grow in sophistication as attackers leverage generative AI to craft more convincing and personalized social engineering campaigns. Analysis of 32 million phishing emails detected across Darktrace’s global customer fleet in 2025 shows AI-assisted phishing techniques increased from 32% to 38% year-over-year, highlighting a shift toward longer, more targeted attacks designed to evade traditional defenses. On average, Darktrace research shows that approximately 17% of email threats bypass Secure Email Gateways but are detected by Darktrace’s AI¹.  

As email threats become harder to detect and faster to execute, many organizations – particularly smaller businesses with limited security resources – are increasingly turning to managed security service providers for support, seeking more flexible ways to consume security and the ability to outsource complex operations. MSSPs play a critical role in extending advanced cybersecurity capabilities to these organizations, but protecting multiple customer environments at scale introduces operational challenges as analysts must investigate large volumes of alerts while maintaining consistent detection and response. By enabling MSSP partners to deliver Darktrace-powered protection as a managed service, the new offering helps make enterprise-grade AI email security accessible to a broader range of organizations.

“As organizations face increasingly sophisticated and automated cyber threats, security operations must evolve beyond traditional alert monitoring,” said Feras Tappuni, CEO and Founder of SecurityHQ, a global managed security service provider.” At SecurityHQ, we focus on engineering security performance for our customers—combining global threat intelligence, advanced AI-driven detection, and human expertise to reduce noise and accelerate response. Technologies like those offered by Darktrace help strengthen that capability by enabling faster detection and deeper investigation across complex environments. By integrating these capabilities into our global security operations, we’re helping organizations improve protection while giving security teams the clarity and confidence they need to respond effectively.”

To help MSSPs meet this growing demand while maintaining effective protection at scale, Darktrace today introduces a new AI-native managed email security capability built on its industry-leading Darktrace / EMAIL™ solution, extending protection across the entire email ecosystem, collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams, identities, and sensitive data. Darktrace / EMAIL has been widely recognized as a leading email security solution, including being named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Email Security Platforms and a 2025 Gartner® Peer Insights™ Customers’ Choice for Email Security Platforms.

Introducing AI-Native Managed Email Protection  

Darktrace’s new managed email security offering enables MSSPs to deliver AI-native protection across email, collaboration platforms, and user identities powered by Self-Learning AI, which continuously learns the normal communication patterns of every user and organization it protects. Instead of relying on traditional static rules or lists, the system dynamically adapts to each environment – identifying subtle behavioral anomalies that may signal early-stage threats such as phishing, business email compromise (BEC), or account takeover (ATO).

The service allows partners to deliver Darktrace’s advanced messaging and identity security capabilities, including AI-driven threat detection across email, Microsoft Teams, and user identities, integrated data loss prevention (DLP) and DMARC monitoring to prevent sensitive data loss and domain impersonation, as well as behavior-driven security training with Darktrace / Adaptive Human Defense. Together, these capabilities detect and contain advanced threats, prevent data exfiltration, stop spoofing and impersonation attacks, and strengthen user resilience against social engineering.

Through this MSSP-ready model, partners can:

• Deliver continuous, real-time detection and containment of advanced email threats
• Automate investigation and prioritization with AI to reduce manual triage
• Maintain consistent protection across multiple customer environments

“As a longstanding Darktrace customer and partner, we’ve seen firsthand how effective its AI-driven approach can be in stopping advanced threats,” said Bob Keblusek, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer at Sentinel Technologies, a premier IT services provider and industry leading MSSP. “Darktrace has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation in cybersecurity, delivering solutions that provide real, long-term value for organizations. That track record made it a natural fit to build a managed security practice around their technology. With this new managed services model, we’re able to bring Darktrace’s advanced capabilities to more customers, helping them strengthen protection against evolving threats while reducing operational burden.”

To support partners operating across multiple customer environments and enable service delivery at scale, Darktrace has also introduced enhancements to its ActiveAI Security Portal™, which unifies control, configuration, and visibility across all Darktrace deployments. The newly introduced SOC Alert Triage Dashboard provides multi-tenant visibility and AI-driven alert investigation and triage across multiple customer environments. The portal enables analysts to investigate incidents, manage workloads, and coordinate response across clients from a single interface, helping service providers streamline SOC operations and accelerate response times.

“Customers today prioritize outcomes over additional standalone security tools,” said Mathias Schick, Business Manager Security at Bechtle, one of Europe’s leading IT service providers. “Especially in the mid-market, organizations often lack the capacity, both financially and operationally, to manage complex security environments themselves. By integrating Darktrace’s technology into our managed services portfolio, we can deliver a complete, automated security offering that reduces friction for customers while strengthening protection against increasingly sophisticated threats.”

Expanding the Darktrace Defenders Partner Program

Darktrace is expanding support for MSSPs within the Darktrace Defenders Partner Program, providing partners with greater flexibility to build and scale security services.

The program introduces a flexible framework designed around partner needs, allowing organizations to engage as resellers, service providers, or fully managed security providers. Key features of the program include:

• Flexible commercial models designed for MSSP business structures
• Scalable deployment paths that accelerate time-to-value
• Co-selling, enablement, and go-to-market support to help partners expand services
• Unified management capabilities that simplify operations across customer environments

This flexible model allows partners to grow their services business at their own pace while unlocking new recurring revenue opportunities.  

“Our partners are at the forefront of helping organizations defend against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats,” said Dan Monahan, Chief Partner Officer, Darktrace. “By expanding MSSP capabilities within the Darktrace Defenders Partner Program and introducing AI-native email security services, we’re enabling partners to bring innovative AI-powered protection to market as managed services, helping them protect customers, scale their operations, and unlock new revenue opportunities.”

For more information, visit https://partners.darktrace.com/.

Resources:

• Register for our upcoming webinar on April 14th to learn more about our latest innovations.  

About Darktrace  

Darktrace is a global leader in AI for cybersecurity that keeps organizations ahead of the changing threat landscape every day. Founded in 2013, Darktrace provides the essential cybersecurity platform protecting organizations from unknown threats using its proprietary AI that learns from the unique patterns of life for each customer in real-time. The Darktrace ActiveAI Security Platform™ delivers a proactive approach to cyber resilience to secure the business across the entire digital estate – from network to cloud to email. It provides pre-emptive visibility into the customer’s security posture, transforms operations with a Cyber AI Analyst™, and detects and autonomously responds to threats in real-time. Breakthrough innovations from our R&D teams in Cambridge, UK, and The Hague, Netherlands have resulted in over 250 patent applications filed. Darktrace’s platform and services are supported by over 2,300 employees around the world who protect nearly 10,000 customers across all major industries globally.

^[1] According to internal Darktrace research. The figure is a volume-weighted average from real enterprise environments where Darktrace / EMAIL ran alongside native email security and a widely deployed leading SEG and represents the share of inbound threats that bypassed those controls but were detected by Darktrace.