A managed service provider's inboxes are an unusually high-value target: 160 mailboxes, dozens of client environments, and one compromised credential away from all of them. Highgate runs the same email security it sells. Here is what it has caught.
IT services • 160 mailboxes • UK, all-remote • Deployed in 2025
Incidents captured across Highgate mailboxes, as of August 2026
Confirmed phishing attacks blocked
Mailboxes protected, staff and shared
Clicks in the latest phishing simulation
Highgate IT Solutions is a UK managed service provider with an all-remote team, 160 shared mailboxes, and dozens of client environments under management.
The email security in front of those inboxes is the same platform Highgate sells, implements and supports for its customers: Ironscales. This is an account of running it on ourselves.
Microsoft 365 catches the generic attacks. The targeted ones aimed at an MSP need a specialist response.
Multiple tier 1 vendors to evaluate, with no single point of coordination
Targeted phishing, BEC and lookalike-domain attacks slip past conventional spam filters
Native Microsoft 365 reporting and admin self-service were limited
Awareness training needs measurable proof, not a tick on a compliance checklist
Microsoft 365 provides Highgate's baseline email protection, catching generic spam and crude phishing. But the targeted attacks an MSP attracts call for a specialist response: business email compromise that mimics a real customer thread, credential-harvesting pages built for IT support staff, and lookalike domains for tooling vendors. The bar for a Highgate-grade decision was higher than for a typical 50-person business.
Highgate sells, implements and supports Ironscales for customers. Running it in-house was the logical extension.
Ironscales bolts onto Microsoft 365 via API rather than replacing it, which kept the rollout fast and reversible.
Ironscales reports that its detection learns from a 17,000-customer dataset, keeping pace with attacks that signature-based filters miss.
Detection, reporting, phishing simulation and awareness training all run from a single platform, with the visibility and admin tooling the team was missing.
Deployed across the staff and shared mailbox estate, with a daily digest listing everything held back and a false positive releasable in seconds.
334 incidents captured, 305 of them confirmed phishing attacks
Zero credentials compromised in the latest phishing simulation
Every team member identified the simulated attack
11 false positives, each releasable by staff in seconds
Detection, reporting, simulation and training consolidated on one platform
As of August 2026, Ironscales has captured 334 incidents across Highgate's mailboxes: 305 confirmed phishing attacks, 18 quarantined as spam, and 11 reviewed and released as false positives.
Phishing simulations are the cleanest test of whether the training is working. In the latest run, every member of the team identified the simulated attack and no credentials were compromised.
Ironscales reports a 90% reduction in phishing-link clicks across customers running its simulation programme.
"Honestly, the toughest email security customer I have is my own team. We see incidents at customer sites every other week, and I knew what I didn’t want. Ironscales is the only platform I’ve been comfortable signing off for our staff. The latest simulation came back without a click, which told me I’d made the right call."
Paolo Rodia
Services Director, Highgate IT Solutions
Email security, phishing simulation and awareness training.
Platform management and monitoring for Microsoft 365 environments.
"They have quickly become a trusted partner and understand our business, support our goals, and ensure our IT is secure, efficient, and future-ready."
– Lewis Martin, Compliance Manager
"We would not hesitate to recommend Highgate."
– Robin Pengilley, Head of IT Services
"A vendor you can truly rely on."
– Tom Luknar, IT Manager
We run a phishing simulation against our own staff, and we will run one against yours. You will get the result either way.
