Case Study: University of Oklahoma achieves major reduction in phishing and unified email & cloud security with Proofpoint

The University of Oklahoma Controls Phishing Attacks with Proofpoint

The University of Oklahoma, a multi-campus public research institution serving more than 35,000 students and operating a major medical center and research facilities, faced growing cybersecurity challenges as it expanded. OU struggled with widespread email-based phishing, inconsistent tools and vendor contracts across campuses, limited visibility into attack scope, and a need to integrate email and cloud security while minimizing false positives and automating remediation.

OU standardized on Proofpoint—deploying Enterprise Protection with TAP and TRAP, plus Email DLP, Encryption, and CASB—to unify email and cloud defenses and automate threat removal. The solution significantly reduced phishing and false positives, streamlined incident response, and boosted IT productivity; Proofpoint identified 50–70% of incoming mail as malicious/bulk/unwanted (e.g., of 108M emails in Oct–Dec 2020 only ~25% passed through to users).

University of Oklahoma

Aaron Baillio

chief information security officer