Additional protection on top of Microsoft 365.

Hotels are a favourite target. Marriott and the Autoclerk booking system both made the headlines, and phishing is the way in. Hallmark Hotels. 26 sites across the UK, grown fast through acquisition, needed one email security answer for the whole group.

Growth left Head of IT Julian Daniel with a familiar problem: several businesses, several systems, several sets of gaps.

“Following a series of acquisitions, I found myself with three completely separate IT infrastructures, with different email systems, and different applications. I was tasked with ensuring cohesion over the group's systems and knew this had to apply to our security tools – to ensure we were universally protected across the group.”

On top of Microsoft 365, not instead of it

The group had already standardised on Microsoft 365. A trial of TrustLayer Email Security showed what sits on top: more visibility into threats, sharper filtering, and control over what happens to a flagged email. The multi-layered engine reads more than 130 variables on every message, the way impersonation and targeted phishing get caught when basic filters wave them through.

“While Microsoft has basic security functionality, we needed more sophisticated security tools to protect our employees, but also at the right price. TrustLayer gives us advanced security and also has a far more personal and specialised security service.”

The support mattered as much as the software.

“Unlike a tech giant where we'd have to go through the mill to get support, the team at TrustLayer proved in the trial that they would be on hand, had some serious security expertise in house, and that they were willing to make this available to us if we needed it. Indeed, the TrustLayer CTO Richard Walters helped us during deployment, which is just something you wouldn't get with another provider.”

What the IT team sees now

Rolled out across all 26 sites, the platform shows the team every flagged email: who sent it, who it reached, and exactly what inside it was dangerous. LinkScan™ rechecks URLs at click time, so a link that turned bad after delivery still gets stopped.

“The majority of these threats come through over email, often in malicious links, which TrustLayer is able to check and stop for us. If a suspicious email comes through to a member of staff on reception it is now blocked and we can easily check all the details to work out why and take the appropriate steps. With TrustLayer in use across all the hotels we are assured our group is safe over email.”