MailSpector – Email Protection & Phishing Detection Tool
I worked on MailSpector, HSC’s email protection tool designed to identify phishing attempts, alert users in real time, and reduce the risk of social-engineering attacks across corporate environments.
Unlike some of the other products I contributed to, MailSpector was not a platform I helped create from the ground up. Instead, my role involved improving the existing experience — enhancing usability, refining flows, and developing new features that strengthened protection and helped users better understand the risks present in their inboxes.
My initial focus was understanding how employees interacted with MailSpector on a daily basis. I reviewed user feedback, analyzed behavioral patterns, and spoke with security teams to learn where users still felt uncertain or confused when dealing with potential phishing emails. Based on these insights, I improved UX elements that guided users through risk identification, such as reorganizing warning messages, refining alert hierarchies, and making suspicious-email indicators more visually clear. I also worked on simplifying how users could report phishing attempts directly from their inbox, reducing the time and friction involved in escalating suspicious content to the security team.
On the development side, I contributed to front-end updates and implemented new features that made the protection workflow more intuitive and actionable. This included enhancing the risk-analysis screen, improving the categorization and explanation of threats, and introducing micro-interactions that clarified why an email was flagged. I also worked on optimizing performance and ensuring UI consistency across different email providers and platforms. These improvements reduced confusion, increased user confidence, and made the detection process more transparent — especially for non-technical employees who relied on MailSpector as their first line of defense against phishing.
My contribution to MailSpector helped refine a critical security tool already in use by companies seeking to reduce human vulnerability. By enhancing the user experience, clarifying alerts, and developing new features, I contributed to making phishing detection more accessible and effective for employees at all technical levels.
