Strengthening phishing protection, email threat visibility and Microsoft 365 security resilience

For many organisations, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace form the foundation of workplace productivity and collaboration.

However, as phishing, business email compromise (BEC), impersonation attacks and human-targeted threats continue to evolve, many organisations are discovering that native email security controls alone are no longer providing sufficient visibility or protection.

This is why organisations across the UK are increasingly investing in:

• phishing protection for Microsoft 365
• office 365 phishing protection
• email threat protection solutions
• layered email security services
• and Microsoft 365 security assessments

to strengthen resilience against modern attacks.

The challenge is no longer simply blocking spam.

Modern attackers increasingly target:

• employees
• identities
• trusted relationships
• collaboration tools
• and human behaviour

making email security one of the most critical areas of organisational risk.

Email remains the primary attack vector

Despite advances in security tooling, email continues to represent one of the most common entry points for cyber attacks.

Microsoft’s Cyber Signals research identified:

• 35 million BEC attempts detected in a single year
• an average of 156,000 attempts per day
• and a 38% increase in cybercrime-as-a-service targeting business email.

Attackers increasingly use:

• phishing
• impersonation
• account compromise
• social engineering
• malicious attachments
• harmful links

to bypass traditional controls and target users directly.

As Microsoft notes, business email compromise attacks rely heavily on deception and trusted identities rather than technical exploits alone.

The reason is simple:

attacking people is often easier than attacking infrastructure.

Why organisations are strengthening Office 365 phishing protection

Microsoft Defender and Google Workspace security capabilities continue to improve, and for many organisations they provide a strong baseline.

However, many security teams still experience challenges around:

• impersonation attacks
• sophisticated phishing campaigns
• business email compromise
• internal email threats
• visibility gaps
• alert fatigue
• fragmented tooling
• security awareness effectiveness

This becomes particularly difficult for:

• SMB and mid-market organisations
• lean IT teams
• overstretched security managers
• compliance-driven environments

where operational simplicity matters as much as security capability.

This is why many organisations adopt layered office 365 phishing protection strategies using specialist email threat protection solutions such as Mimecast.

Mimecast and layered email security services in the UK

Many organisations now use Mimecast alongside Microsoft 365 rather than replacing native controls entirely.

The objective is to:

• strengthen phishing protection for Microsoft 365
• improve visibility into email threats
• reduce operational complexity
• enhance business email compromise defence
• simplify management
• improve compliance and governance capabilities

Layered email security services UK organisations increasingly require now include:

• advanced phishing detection
• impersonation protection
• malicious attachment analysis
• insider threat visibility
• user awareness and human risk monitoring
• archive and retention controls
• collaboration security

Modern phishing campaigns increasingly evade traditional filtering using:

• QR code phishing
• AI-generated language
• HTML attachment abuse
• supplier impersonation
• conversation hijacking

making additional visibility and behavioural analysis increasingly important.

Human risk is now the primary battleground

Modern phishing attacks are no longer limited to poorly written spam emails.

Threat actors increasingly use:

• realistic impersonation
• executive spoofing
• supplier compromise
• AI-generated messaging
• social engineering
• trusted relationship abuse

to bypass technical controls and manipulate users directly.

This means organisations increasingly require:

• behavioural visibility
• adaptive awareness training
• insider threat monitoring
• contextual risk scoring
• human risk analytics

rather than relying solely on traditional filtering technologies.

Security awareness alone is no longer enough.

Why Microsoft 365 security assessments are becoming essential

One of the biggest challenges organisations face is understanding:

• what phishing threats bypass native controls
• which users are most targeted
• how risky user behaviour is evolving
• whether dormant threats already exist inside mailboxes
• how effective existing controls actually are

Without visibility, organisations often struggle to:

• prioritise remediation
• identify compromised accounts
• improve awareness programmes
• detect insider risk
• investigate incidents effectively

This is why many organisations now conduct Microsoft 365 security assessments and email threat assessments to validate existing protection capabilities.

These assessments help identify:

• phishing exposure
• suspicious email activity
• impersonation risks
• malicious attachments
• dormant threats
• risky user behaviour

without disrupting mail flow or requiring significant infrastructure changes.

Lean IT teams need operational simplicity

Many organisations do not have large internal security teams.

Managing multiple disconnected security products can create:

• operational overhead
• alert fatigue
• duplicated tooling
• inconsistent visibility
• administration complexity

This is why deployment simplicity and operational efficiency are becoming increasingly important when evaluating email threat protection solutions.

Cloud-integrated deployment models now allow organisations to strengthen Microsoft 365 email security rapidly without major MX record changes or disruption.

Key questions organisations should be asking

Security and IT leaders should regularly assess:

• Are we confident native Microsoft 365 controls are stopping phishing attacks?
• What threats are still reaching users?
• Which users are most exposed?
• How are we monitoring insider risk?
• Are our awareness programmes adapting to real-world attacks?
• How quickly can we identify compromised accounts?
• Do we have visibility across email and collaboration environments?
• Are our existing email security controls enough?

How Peritus helps

Peritus Cloud Security provides email security services in the UK designed to strengthen Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace protection through layered email security, human risk visibility and operationally scalable security services.

Using Mimecast, Peritus helps organisations:

• improve office 365 phishing protection
• reduce phishing exposure
• strengthen business email compromise defence
• improve visibility into email threats
• simplify operational management
• enhance awareness programmes
• reduce operational complexity

while supporting compliance and governance requirements across modern collaboration environments.

Request a Microsoft 365 security assessment

Peritus can provide a lightweight Microsoft 365 security assessment and Mimecast threat assessment to help organisations identify:

• phishing threats
• suspicious email activity
• dormant threats
• malicious attachments
• impersonation exposure
• risky user behaviour

without disrupting existing mail flow or requiring major infrastructure changes.

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