Caellix Contact Us SECURITY & COMPLIANCE
We harden identities, endpoints, and cloud environments against phishing, ransomware, and credential-based attacks — with practical controls your team can operate day to day.
YOUR CHALLENGES
Phishing, malware, ransomware, stolen credentials, exposed services, risky sharing, and unmanaged devices become business incidents when security controls are incomplete, disconnected, or too slow to respond. The risk is not only that an attack happens — it is that nobody sees the full path until the damage has already spread.
A phishing email lands. A user opens an attachment. Malware executes on an endpoint. A ransomware chain starts before anyone understands the blast radius.
When a phishing email lands or a device is compromised, how quickly does your team know — and what do they do? Without consistent protection and response signals, a single inbox or endpoint becomes the starting point for a wider incident.
Password spraying, phishing, token theft, MFA fatigue, risky sign-ins, and over-permissioned accounts give attackers a way in without touching the network perimeter.
One compromised account — especially an admin — can reach mailboxes, devices, cloud resources, and sensitive data. If access controls are weak or risky sign-ins go unreviewed, identity becomes the easiest route from a stolen password to a real incident.
Teams add SaaS tools, OAuth apps, external guests, storage locations, automations, and exposed services faster than security can review them.
Every unreviewed OAuth consent, stale guest account, or exposed service is a potential entry point. If your team cannot see what is connected to the environment, you cannot control what attackers use to get in.
Modern ransomware groups exfiltrate files, mailbox data, and business records first. If the ransom is not paid, the data gets published. By the time encryption starts, the theft is already done.
After gaining access, attackers move through SharePoint, OneDrive, and mailboxes using the same tools your team uses every day. Without detection tuned to unusual movement and bulk exports, data is already gone before the ransom note arrives.
Defender, Sentinel, Entra, Intune, Purview, and endpoint tools generate alerts — but alerts do not stop attackers unless someone can tell what matters and act fast.
Most environments generate alerts. The problem is knowing which ones matter, who responds, and what they do. When escalation paths are informal and priorities are unclear, attackers keep moving while teams debate whether something is real.
Temporary access becomes permanent. Policies are changed under pressure. Devices fall out of compliance. Exceptions are approved once and never reviewed again.
Controls drift when nobody reviews them. The exception approved six months ago, the policy relaxed under deadline pressure, the stale account nobody disabled — these are the gaps attackers find and use.
Threat Reality
Research from Microsoft and IBM puts figures on what most organisations already sense: threats are escalating, breaches take months to catch, and the cost of compromise remains high. The point is not fear. The point is evidence for the security decisions that cannot wait until after an incident.
of attacks with known motivation
driven by ransomware and extortion in Microsoft’s 2025 reporting
surge in identity-based attacks
in the first half of 2025 alone, with 97% targeting passwords
average operational downtime after a ransomware attack
more than three working weeks with no access to systems, data, or business workflows — whether ransom was paid or not
average breach cost before the wider business impact
the invoice is only part of the damage — downtime, recovery, trust, and lost focus often continue long after containment
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR ENVIRONMENT
The real risk is not a single phishing email or one vulnerable endpoint. The risk is the chain that follows: stolen identity, quiet reconnaissance, privilege abuse, data theft, ransomware, downtime, and recovery pressure. Security investment should reduce three things: how easily attackers get in, how far they can move, and how long they stay unnoticed.
Caellix turns this attack path into practical controls: hardened identity, safer endpoints and email, tuned detection, controlled data movement, and response steps your team can operate under pressure.
HOW AN ATTACK UNFOLDS IN A MICROSOFT ENVIRONMENT
Initial Access
A convincing email, a reused password, or an MFA fatigue prompt gives the attacker a foothold. This step often takes minutes and generates no immediate alert.
One trusted mailbox, device, or session can become the first path into files, chats, applications, and internal systems.
Reconnaissance
The attacker explores roles, permissions, connected systems, and data locations — often for weeks — while activity looks identical to a normal user.
Normal-looking activity gives attackers time to learn who approves payments, where sensitive data lives, and which accounts can unlock more access.
Lateral Movement
Using the initial foothold, the attacker escalates privileges, moves between devices and cloud workloads, and positions for maximum impact across Azure and Microsoft 365.
One compromised account can reach finance, operations, IT systems, and data backups when access is not segmented by risk.
Exfiltration
Files, mailbox data, and business records leave through legitimate Microsoft tools — SharePoint sync, OneDrive — before encryption begins. This enables double extortion.
Data can leave through legitimate collaboration flows before anyone sees encryption or disruption, increasing extortion pressure.
Impact
Systems are encrypted, backups are targeted, and the ransom demand arrives — backed by a threat to publish the data already stolen in the previous stage.
Recovery becomes a business crisis when encryption, stolen data, unclear responsibilities, and untested response steps converge at once.
Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2025 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025 Sophos State of Ransomware 2025
WHAT WE OFFER
We turn threat scenarios into practical protection across email, endpoints, identity, cloud resources, data protection, detection, and response. Each layer is configured with clear responsibility, monitoring, and operating guidance so security does not depend on isolated tools or one-time setup.
We configure a practical protection baseline for inboxes and devices: phishing controls, malware prevention, ransomware reduction, malicious link and attachment handling, endpoint onboarding, and response actions.
We harden identity as the primary security boundary: risky sign-ins, MFA abuse, admin access, stale accounts, and over-permissioned roles are brought under control.
We reduce exposed services, weak management paths, policy gaps, and insecure workload configuration before they become entry points or persistence paths.
We protect sensitive data across Microsoft 365, devices, mailboxes, external collaboration, unmanaged access, and everyday sharing workflows so normal work does not become an exfiltration path.
We tune detection and response around the incidents your team actually needs to handle: phishing, malware, ransomware, identity abuse, data theft, and suspicious cloud activity.
We leave security controls with review cadence, runbooks, exception handling, responsibility notes, and an improvement backlog so protection does not decay after the first configuration pass.
The net result
The outcome is a security environment your team can trust in daily operations: fewer unmanaged paths, clearer response flow, stronger control over identities and data, and practical guidance for what to do when something looks wrong.
Security decisions are no longer scattered across disconnected tools, exceptions, and undocumented settings
Common attack paths are reduced before they become urgent incidents
Compromised accounts and devices have less room to move through the environment
Teams can identify, prioritise, and escalate real incidents through clearer response paths
Sensitive data and collaboration workflows are governed without blocking normal work
Controls are documented, reviewed, and improved instead of drifting after initial setup
SIEM / SOAR Correlate incidents
We configure Sentinel to correlate signals from your environment into incidents and response paths — so your team can see what matters and act on it.
XDR Connect threat signals
We use Defender XDR to connect signals across endpoints, email, identity, and cloud — so attack chains surface as investigations, not isolated alerts.
Cloud posture Harden cloud resources
We run Defender for Cloud posture reviews, prioritise hardening recommendations, and reduce exposed services around the attack paths that matter most.
Endpoint security Protect devices
We onboard and configure endpoints for malware protection, attack surface reduction, EDR visibility, and defined response actions.
Email security Reduce phishing risk
We configure email protection policies for phishing, malicious links, attachments, impersonation, and mailbox compromise — aligned to how your organisation actually communicates.
Identity risk Stop credential abuse
We bring risky sign-ins, compromised users, conditional access policies, and privileged access patterns under active control in your Entra tenant.
Device compliance Control endpoint access
We configure device compliance policies, baselines, and access conditions so unmanaged devices cannot become entry points into your environment.
Data protection Control data movement
We align Purview sensitivity labels, retention policies, DLP rules, and sharing controls to how your team works — reducing exfiltration risk without blocking everyday collaboration.
HOW WE WORK
We focus on configuring the controls inside your Microsoft 365 security stack. We review how identity, email, endpoints, collaboration, device compliance, data protection, alerting, and response responsibilities are set up today, then turn gaps into policies, tuned detections, runbooks, and operating routines your team can sustain.
Understand current Microsoft 365 security configuration
We review Entra ID, Defender, Intune, Purview, Sentinel or Defender XDR signals, sharing settings, admin roles, conditional access, mailbox protection, and device policies — then identify the configuration gaps that create risk in daily work.
Define the target control model
We decide which policies, alerts, access rules, data protection controls, and response procedures should exist, who is responsible for them, and how exceptions should be handled — so security settings are deliberate, consistent, and supportable.
Apply controls in the Microsoft ecosystem
We configure the agreed Microsoft-native controls, tune detections, reduce alert noise, document changes, and validate expected behaviour with the team — before relying on the configuration in daily operations.
Hand over operating routines
We document runbooks, response actions, review cadence, known exceptions, and the next improvement backlog — so protection can be maintained after the first pass.
Engagement model
WHAT YOU CAN COUNT ON
FAQ
Not if it is rolled out properly. Controls like Conditional Access and MFA go live in report-only mode first, so we see who would be affected before anyone is blocked. Changes are phased, exceptions are handled by design, and the goal is controls people don't notice — not gates they fight.
No. We do not sell this service as penetration testing. The work focuses on configuring and improving Microsoft-native security controls inside your environment: Entra ID, Defender, Intune, Purview, Sentinel, Defender XDR, Microsoft 365 sharing settings, access policies, alerts, and response procedures.
Yes. We can review the current configuration, identify weak or inconsistent settings, prioritise what should change first, and then apply improvements in controlled steps. This is useful when Defender, Sentinel, Intune, Purview, or Conditional Access are already present but not configured consistently.
We work with the licenses already active in your tenant. If a useful security control requires a license you do not have, we will tell you — and you decide whether to add it. We do not require a specific Microsoft plan to begin the review.
The review and first configuration sprint typically take four to eight weeks, depending on how many areas are in scope and how much configuration work is needed. We work in visible increments so you can see progress before each phase completes.
We tune alerts around useful operational signals instead of simply enabling every possible rule. The work includes severity review, escalation paths, incident grouping, practical response notes, and clear guidance on what the team should check first when an alert appears.
Handover includes configuration notes, runbooks, response steps, support notes, known exceptions, monitoring expectations, and a practical improvement backlog. The goal is that the configured controls do not depend on memory or on the person who set them up.
Yes — that is how most engagements start. The configuration review surfaces risky settings, over-privileged accounts, legacy authentication, exposed sharing, and suspicious sign-in patterns already present in the tenant. You see what an attacker would find, before one does.
NEXT STEPS
Start with the controls and operating model your team needs to reduce how attackers get in, move, and persist across your Microsoft environment.